THE  LIBRARY  OF  THE 

UNIVERSITY  OF 

NORTH  CAROLINA 


THE  COLLECTION  OF 
NORTH  CAROLINIANA 


C91? 

N87U 
c? 


00006792189 


This  book  is  due  on  the  last  date  stamped 
below  unless  recalled  sooner.    It  may  be 
renewed  only  once  and  must  be  brought  to 
the  North  Carolina  Collection  for  renewal. 


b-k- 


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zrWo 


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in  2012  with  funding  from 

University  of  North  Carolina  at  Chapel  Hill 


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ISTOETH    OAEOLHSTA: 


ITS 


RESOURCES  AND  PROGRESS; 


ITS 


•  * 


BEAUTY,  HEALTHFIMESS  AND  FERTILITY; 


AND   ITS 


ATTRACTIONS  AND  ADVANTAGES  AS   A  HOME 
FOR  IMMIGRANTS. 


V 


COMPILED     BY     THE    BOARD     OF     IMMIGRATION,     STATISTICS    AND 
AGRICULTURE. 


i 


KALEIGH : 

J03IAII   TURNER,    PUBLIC   PRINTER   AND   BINDER 

/.  1875. 


TO  THE  READER. 


This  publication  has  been  gotten  up  under  the  authority  of 
the  Legislature  of  North  Carolina,  in  order  to  furnish  persons 
desirous  of  coming  to  this  State,  the  most  reliable,  general  and 
statistical  information  as  a  guide  to  investment  and  location. 
To  the  Northern  and  European  settlers  coming  to  North  Car- 
olina for  the  purchase  of  lands  of  all  descriptions  suited  to  the 
wants  of  the  agriculturist,  the  vine  and  fruit-grower,  the  truck 
farmer,  the  miner  and  manufacturer,  and  to  all  those  seeking 
any  employment,  these  pages  will  give  such  information  as 
may  be  useful  to  each,  and  any  class  who  may  seek  a  home  in 
one  of  the  most  highly  favored  portions  of  the  earth,  in  cli- 
mate, soil,  natural  advantages,  capacity  for  improvement  and 
population.  The  world  does  not  possess  anywhere  a  more 
quiet,  peaceable,  honest  and  frugal  population  than  the  people 
of  this  State.  Notwithstanding  the  devastation,  ruin  and  de- 
moralization of  the  late  civil  war,  our  people  are  rapidly  re- 
turning to  their  old  customs  and  labors.  A  more  law-abiding 
people  cannot  be  found.  Foreigners  and  strangers  who  come 
among  us  to  engage  in  the  industrial  and  business  professions 
of  life,  and  to  pursue  the  arts  of  peace,  are  everywhere  hailed 
with  joy,  and  the  aim  and  desire  of  our  people  generally  is  to 
promote  peace  and  quietude,  enterprise  and  prosperity  among 
^all  classes,  and  to  encourage  and  support  wise  laws,  and  a  good 
^government  which  gives  the  greatest  security  and  protection 
<N  to  life,  labor  and  property. 


We  do  not  hesitate  to  say  that  North  Carolina  presents  the 
best  and  fairest  field  for  the  immigrant,  when  compared  M'ith 
any  similar  extent  of  territory  in  the  world.  Its  soil,  its 
climate,  its  healthfulness  are  unrivalled,  and  adapted  to  the 
occupancy  of  every  nationality.  The  variety  of  its  produc- 
tions is  endless,  embracing  not  only  cotton,  rice  and  Indian 
corn,  which  are  staples,  but  wheat,  rye,  barley  and  potatoes  of 
both  kinds,  together  with  nearly  all  fruits  and  grapes  of  every 
species.  The  area  of  the  whole  State  is  thirty-four  millions  of 
acres,  consisting  of  lowlands,  uplands  and  mountains,  with  the 
exception  of  a  small  area  on  the  Atlantic.  A  silvery  atmosphere 
is  a  distinctive  peculiarity  of  its  climate,  while  over  its  high- 
lands and  mountains  a  breeze  full  of  health  and  vigor  is  for- 
ever blowing.  It  is  beautifully  diversified  with  rolling  plains 
like  those  of  lower  France  and  Prussia,  with  swelling  slopes, 
and  sunny  hilhsides  similar  in  adaptability  to  fruit  and  vine 
culture  to  those  of  the  JRhine  Provinces,  with  mountains  more 
lofty  than  those  of  Scotland,  and  destitute  of  their  sterility 
with  softer  and  more  delicious  vales  than  those  of  Switzerland 
and  Italy,  for  they  are  devoid  of  the  awful  glaciers  of  the 
former  and  the  burning  summer  heat  of  the  latter,  with  for- 
ests in  which  nearly  every  tree  for  ornament  or  use  grows  in 
lavish  abundance,  with  rivers  deep  and  navigable,  in  which  the 
year  round  the  angler  can  find  sport  in  his  calm  employment, 
and  up  which  in  the  spring  swarm  innumerable  ocean  fish  for 
the  purpose  of  spawning — with  cataracts  grander  in  height 
than  Niagara  and  far  more  lovely  than  the  Falls  of  the  Rhine 
or  of  the  Catskill,  of  New  York.  The  people  of  the  State  are 
intelligent,  eminently  social,  refined  in  manners,  hospitable  to 
strangers,  religious  by  adoption  and  early  training,  and  deeply 


devoted  to  freedom  in  the  widest  sense  of  the  word.  They 
are  law-abiding,  peaceful  and  generous;  just  in  their  dealings 
and  faithful  to  their  engagements.  Schools  and  Colleges  of 
the  highest  grade  flourish  throughout  her  wide  extended  do- 
main from  sea  to  mountains.  The  free  school  system  for  all 
races  is  established  upon  a  firm  and  permanent  basis,  each 
county  is  divided  into  townships,  and  each  township  into  dis- 
tricts, and  for  each  district  funds  are  set  apart  for  the  mainte- 
nance of  at  least  two  free  schools.  The  whites  and  negroes 
are  taught  in  separate  schools. 

The  question  may  arise  in  the  mind  of  the  immigrant,  why 
is  it,  since  North  Carolina  is  so  fine  a  country,  that  its  claims 
have  been  so  long  ignored,  and  that  foreigners  in  seeking  the 
shores  of  America  have  hitherto  wended  their  way  westward  ? 
Many  valid  reasons  could  be  assigned  in  answer.  A  few,  how- 
ever, will  suffice,  and  principal  among  them  are  these :  Prior 
to  the  civil  war  or  rebellion,  a  prejudice  existed  in  the  minds  of 
our  landed  proprietors  against  the  encouragement  of  this  enter- 
prise. Possessing  sufficient  slave  labor,  they  supposed  that 
free  labor  would  clash  with  the  institution  of  slavery.  The 
emancipation  of  the  slave  has  altered  the  phase  of  affairs. 
The  freedmen  have  proved  to  be  unequal  to  the  responsibility 
of  their  position,  and  instead  of  advancing,  they  are  retrogra- 
ding. The  tendency  of  the  negro  is  towards  centralization, 
and  while  our  towns  and  villages  swarm  with  them,  many 
parts  of  the  agricultural  districts  are  nearly  destitute  of  la- 
borers. They  are  by  nature  disinclined  to  steady  employment 
and  persevering  effort.  They  perform  excellent  service  when 
employed  at  mills,  on  steamboats,  in  cutting  timber,  in  scraping 


turpentine  and  similar  jobs,  but  they  cannot  be  relied  upon  as 
farm  hands. 

Then  the  cry  comes  from  our  fertile  fields,  lying  fallow,  from 
beautiful  but  tenantless  homesteads,  for  the  hardy,  the  intelli- 
gent and  moral  of  every  land  to  till  these  grounds,  to  occupy 
these  vacant  places.    A  revolution  in   sentiment  has  taken 
place  and  our  people  stand  ready  to  welcome  the  stranger. 
Again,  slavery  was  held  as  a  reproach  against  the  South — now, 
the  slave  is  a  free  man,  and  entitled  to  every  legal  and  polit- 
ical privilege  equally  with  the  proudest  and  wealthiest  of  the 
land.     Peace  and  quiet  reign  in  North  Carolina.     There  exists 
no  longer  a  reason  why  the  State  should  not  rapidly  be  settled. 
The  soil  is  as  fruitful  as  the  West  and  North,  and  without  the 
intense  winter  of  those  States,  lasting  for  six  months  of  the 
year.     The  lands  of  Carolina  are  owned  by  individuals,  not  by 
capitalists.     The   landholders  are  willing   to  part  with  their 
lands  at  a  reasonable  price,  because  they  need  laborers  and  are 
desirous  that  the  interests  of  the  State  should  be  advanced. 
They  publish  to  the  world  no  untruthful  or  glowing  accounts ; 
they  have  no  agents  abroad  in  the  employ  of  rings  and  monop- 
olies.    Theirs  is  no  spirit  of  wild   speculation,  founded  upon 
probable  railroads  in  the  dim  future ;  they  have  not  secured  by 
Government  grants  large  tracts  of  wilderness  to  re-sell  at  ex- 
orbitant profits;  but   they  are  offering  for  sale  their  paternal 
acres,  improved  and  built  upon,  and  on  which  their  fathers 
have  long  resided.     Here  are  homesteads,  bright  and  beautiful, 
for  sale,  presenting  no  need  of  temporary  log  huts ;  here  are 
no  trees  to  be  felled  before   a   crop  can  be  made,  no  howling 
wolves,  no  marauding  bands  of  Indians  are  here,  as  in  the 
West,  to  annoy  and  destroy  the  settler.    But  a  land,  in  point  of 


natural  advantages,  superior  to  any  other;" and  one  of  the 

r 

most  attractive  that  heaven's  sun  ever  looked  upon.  It  is  the 
only  State  in  which  every  article  enumerated  in  the  United 
States  statistics  is  produced. 

To  the  State  of  North  Carolina,  then,  abounding  in  all  the 
varied  productions  we  have  enumerated,  we  invite  the  emigrant 
of  all  nationalities,  and  the  people  from  every  section  of  our 
Union — and  to  all  we  promise  a  cordial  welcome,  the  enjoy- 
ment of  religious  and  political  freedom,  the  full  protectionjof 
our  laws,  and  a  guaranty  of  their  personal  safety,  in  any  and 
every  section  of  the  State. 


REPORT  OF  COMMITTEE. 


The  Joint  Committee  on  Immigration,  to  which  was  referred 
the  message  of  his  Excellency,  the  Governor,  and  the  reports 
of  the  President  and  Secretary  of  the  Bureau  of  Immigration, 
Statistics  and  Agriculture,  have  considered  said  message  and 
reports  and  recommend  that  six  hundred  copies  of  the  same  be 
printed  for  the  use  of  the  General  Assembly. 

WARING, 
Chairman  Joint  Com.  on  Immigration. 


STATE  OF  NORTH  CAROLINA, 

Executive  Department, 

Raleigh,  December  4th,  1874. 

To  the  Honorable  the  General  Assembly 

of  the  State  of  North  Carolina : 

I  have  the  honor  to  transmit  herewith  the  interesting  re- 
ports of  the  President  and  Secretary  of  the  Bureau  of  Immi- 
gration, Statistics  and  Agriculture,  in  accordance  with  chapter 
135,  Public  Laws  1873-74,  and  respectfully  invite  your  atten- 
tion to  the  subjects  to  which  they  relate. 

Agriculture  is  of  the  most  vital  importance  to  all,  and  while 
it  supports  and  sustains  all,  it  has  heretofore  received  but  yerj 
little  aid  and  encouragement  from  the  government.  Let  us 
strive  to  cherish  and  promote  our  agricultural  interests  and 
resources  by  the  use  of  such  practical  and  proper  means  as  may 


10 


be  best  calculated  to  give  and  secure  substantial  encouragement 
and  protection  to  honest  industry  and  labor  in  all  the  useful 
vocations  and  employments  of  life. 

I  am,  very  respectfully, 

Your  obedient  servant, 

C.  H.  BKOGDEN, 
Governor. 


Office  Secretary  or  State, 
Kaleigh,  Nov.  30th,  1874. 

His  Excellency,  Curtis  H.  Brogden,  Governor : 

Dear  Sir  : — Enclosed  please  find  a  report  made  to  me  this 
day  by  the  Secretary  of  the  Bureau  of  Immigration,  Statistics 
and  Agriculture,  authorized  to  be  made  by  an  act  of  the  Legis- 
lature, chapter  135,  Public  Laws  of  1873-74. 

You  will  oblige  me  by  transmitting  it  to  the  General  Assem- 
bly, and  calling  their  especial  attention  to  the  matters  therein 
contained. 

In  addition,  I  desire  to  submit  a  synopsis  of  the  work  per 
formed  by  the  Bureau,  which  I  hope  you  will  not  consider  as 
out  of  place. 

The  appointment  of  an  Agent  in  every  County  of  the  State, 
to  collect  information  as  to  the  wants  and  the  employment  that 
might  be  given  to  agricultural  labor,  machinery,  art  and  min- 
ing, engaged  the  earliest  attention  of  the  Board.  A  large 
number  of  these  Agents  have  furnished  some  valuable  informa- 
tion that  will  be  useful  hereafter ;  whilst  many  have  failed  to 
make  any  response,  or  supply  the  facts  asked  for. 

The  Board-  herewith  snbmits  to  the  General  Assembly  a 
statistical  and  general  sketch  of  North  Carolina,  with  valuable 
compilations,  showing  the  resources  of  every  part  of  the  State, 
and  presenting  to  the  immigrant,  in  all  truthfulness,  the  rea- 


11 


sons  which  should  induce  him  to  come  hither ;  and  to  the  capi- 
talist, the  encouragement  which  should  invite  investment.  It 
is  hoped  the  General  Assembly  will  make  such  disposition  of 
this  document  as  will  redound  to  the  interest  of  the  State. 

Arrangements  have  been  made  with  Agents  in  New  York, 
Canada  and  various  parts  of  the  North,  as  well  as  in' several 
European  countries,  for  the  promotion  of  Immigration ;  and 
the  efficiency  of  the  Bureau  can  be  greatly  enlarged  and  ex- 
tended under  the  system  begun,  provided  the  General  Assem- 
bly should  deem  it  advisable  to  supply  the  means  necessary  to 
secure  the  great  objects  to  be  attained.  When  it  is  recol- 
lected that  every  able-bodied  immigrant  is  worth  to  the  State 
$1000,  (which  fact  has  been  ascertained  by  careful  calculation,) 
and  that  many  of  these  immigrants  bring  in  large  sums  of 
money  for  the  purchase  of  land,  improving  by  their  skill  and 
example  the  agricultural  system,  which  now  languishes  in 
many  sections,  enlarging  the  area  of  cultivation,  adding  to  the 
wealth  of  the  State,  aiding  in  the  payment  of  taxes,  and  the 
general  improvement  of  the  country,  it  is  difficult  to  conceive 
a  subject  which  is  of  greater  importance  to  the  general  welfare 
of  the  State. 

"We  cannot  with  any  degree  of  accuracy  state  the  number 
of  immigrants  who  have  settled  in  the  State  since  the  termi- 
nation of  our  late  domestic  troubles,  but  from  information  fur- 
nished by  the  Commissioner  of  Immigration,  we  have  every 
reason  to  believe  that  several  thousand  have  located  in  the 
State  within  that  period,  bringing  with  them  large  means,  in- 
vested both  in  agricultural  pursuits  and  manufacturing  in  its 
various  branches.  And  if  a  liberal  spirit  was  manifested  in 
the  exemption  from  taxation  (for  a  limited  period,)  of  manu- 
facturing enterprises,  as  has  been  done  in  other  States  south  of 
us,  there  would  undoubtedly  be  a  great  increase  in  these  in- 
dustries. 

The  sum  of  two  hundred  dollars,  appropriated  by  the  last 
Legislature,  has  been  expended  in  the  purchase  of  geological 


12 


maps  for  distribution,  for  postage  and  for  the  purpose  of  get- 
ting up  the  documents  presented  for  your  consideration. 
I  have  the  honor  to  be, 
Very  respectfully, 

Your  obedient  servant, 

WM.  H.  HOWERTOK, 
Secretary  of  State  and  President  Board  of  Immigration. 


Office  Bureau  of  Immigration, 
Statistics  and  Agriculture, 
Raleigh,  Nov.  30th,  1874. 

Hon.  Wm.  H.  Howerton,  Secretary  of  State, 

and  President  of  the  Board,  &c.  : 

Dear  Sir  : — I  have  the  honor  to  submit  the  following  re- 
port, which  has  been  prepared  by  me  under  the  direction  of 
the  Bureau,  to  be  submitted  to  the  consideration  of  the  Gen- 
eral Assembly,  in  accordance  with  the  requirements  of  the  Act, 
chap.  135,  ratified  16th  day  of  February,  A.  D.  1874,  Public 
Laws  1873-'74. 

Very  respectfully, 

GEO.  LITTLE, 

Secretary. 


STATISTICAL  AND   DESCRIPTIVE    ACCOUNT  OF 
NORTH  CAROLINA. 


The  State  of  North  Carolina  has  an  area  of  50,704:  square 
miles.  It  is  485  miles  in  length  from  east  to  west,  and  covers 
a  greater  breadth  of  longitude  than  any  of  the  original  thirteen 
States.  It  is  bounded  on  the  north  by  30th  parallel  of  latitude 
and  touches  the  34th  on  its  south-eastern  border,  embracing 
as  it  does  the  lowlands  of  the  sea-shore,  the  elevated  table  lands 
of  the  interior,  and  the  very  highest  ranges  and  peaks  of  the 
Appalachian  range.  The  State  has  a  greater  variety  of  climate 
and  productions  than  any  other  in  the  Union.  The  peculiar 
characteristics  of  these  several  portions  of  our  territory  will  be 
descibed  with  greater  perspicuity  in  another  part  o  fthis  essay. 
It  may  be  well,  however,  to  preface  them  with  the  latest  sta- 
tistics of  population  and  productions.  The  following  table  of 
population  has  been  carefully  compiled  from  the  United  States 
Census  for  18 70 : 


14 

POPULATION — EASTERN   DIVISION. 


COUNTIES. 

WHITE. 

COL OK ED. 

TOTAL. 

Currituck, 

3991 

1140 

5131 

Camden, 

3239 

2121 

5360 

Pasquotank, 

4180 

3951 

8131 

Perquimans, 

3947 

3998 

7945 

Chowan, 

3081 

3369 

6450 

Gates, 

4517 

3207 

7724 

Hertford, 

4321 

4952 

9273 

Bertie, 

5513 

7437 

12950 

Northampton, 

6239 

8510 

14749 

Halifax, 

6418 

13990 

20408 

Edgecombe, 

7858 

15112 

22970 

Martin, 

5064 

4583 

9647 

Washington, 

3739 

2777 

6516 

Tyrrell, 

2S71 

1302 

4173 

Dare, 

2401 

377 

2778 

Pamlico, 

2401 

377 

2778 

Hyde, 

4067 

2378 

6445 

Beaufort, 

8379 

4632 

13011 

Craven, 

8400 

12116 

20516 

Carteret, 

6285 

2725 

9010 

Wilson, 

7185 

5073 

12258 

Greene, 

4166 

4521 

8687 

Pitt, 

SS62 

8414 

17276 

Johnston, 

11703 

5194 

16897 

Wayne, 

10004 

8140 

18144 

Lenoir, 

4902 

5532 

10434 

Onslow, 

5173 

2396 

7569 

Jones, 

2346 

2656 

5002 

Harnett, 

5857 

303S 

8895 

Cumberland, 

9520 

7515 

17035 

Sampson, 

9953 

0483 

16436 

Duplin, 

8776 

6766 

15542 

New  Hanover, 

11779 

16199 

27978 

Robeson, 

8892 

7370 

16262 

Bladen, 

6729 

6102 

12831 

Columbus, 

5526 

2948 

8474 

Brunswick, 

4448 

3306 

7754 

Total, 

220331 

200330 

420661 

15 


POPULATION HIDDLR   DIVISION. 


COUNTIES. 

WHITE. 

COLORED. 

TOTAL. 

Rockingham, 

9493 

6215 

15708 

Guilford, 

16656 

6080 

21736 

Davie, 

6527 

3093 

9620 

Davidson, 

13868 

3546 

17414 

Rowan, 

11503 

5307 

16810 

Cabarrus, 

8025 

3929 

11954 

Mecklenburg, 

13578 

10721 

24299 

Caswell, 

6587 

9494 

16081 

Alamance, 

8234 

3640 

11874 

Randolph, 

14915 

2606 

17551 

Montgomery, 

5359 

2128 

7487 

Stanly, 

7026 

1289 

"     8315 

Union, 

9523 

2694 

12217 

Person, 

6066 

5104 

11170 

Orange, 

11087 

6420 

17507 

Chatham, 

12893 

6830 

19723 

Moore, 

9021 

3019 

12040 

Richmond, 

6284 

6598 

12882 

Anson, 

6350 

6078 

12428 

Granville, 

11476 

13355 

24831 

Wake, 

19426 

16184 

35610 

Warren, 

5276 

12492 

17768 

Franklin, 

6633 

7501 

14134 

Nash, 

6356 

4721 

11077 

Total, 

231192 

149044 

380236 

16 


POPULATION — WESTERN   DIVISION. 


COUNTIES. 

WHITE. 

COLORED. 

TOTAL. 

Stokes, 

8600 

2608 

11208 

Forsythe, 

10716 

2334 

13050 

Yadkin, 

9253 

1444 

10697 

Iredell, 

12288 

4643 

16931 

Catawba, 

9281 

1703 

10984 

Lincoln, 

6814 

2759 

9573 

Gaston, 

8430 

4172 

12602 

Surry, 

9692 

1560 

11252 

Wilkes, 

13877 

1662 

15539 

Alexander, 

6034 

834 

686S 

Alleghany, 

3401 

290 

3691 

Ashe, 

8991 

582 

9573 

Watauga, 

5061 

226 

5287 

Caldwell, 

7096 

1380 

8476 

Burke, 

7463 

2314 

9777 

Cleaveland, 

10633 

2063 

12696 

Mitchell, 

4492 

213 

4705 

Yancey, 

5601 

308 

5909 

McDowell, 

5820 

1772 

7592 

Rutherford, 

10479 

2642 

13121 

Polk, 

3341 

978 

4319 

Madison, 

7858 

334 

8192 

Buncombe, 

13109 

2303 

15412 

Henderson, 

6498 

1208 

7706 

Haywood, 

7406 

515 

7921 

Transylvania, 

3227 

309 

3536 

Jackson, 

5698 

274 

5972 

Swain, 

Macon, 

6173 

403 

6576 

Clay, 

2319 

142 

2461 

Cherokee, 

7296 

301 

7597 

Total  Western  Division, 

226947 

42276 

269223 

Middle  Division, 

231192 

149044 

380236 

Eastern  Division, 

220331 

200330 

420661 

Grand  totals,                           ' 

678470 

391650 

1070120 

17 


The  following  statistics  are  also  taken  from  the  census  re- 
turns, viz : 

Acres  of  improved  land,  5,258,742 

Acres  of  wood  land,  12,026,894 

Other  unimproved  lands,  2,549,774 


Total,  19,835,410 

The  area  of  the  State  in  square  miles  is  50,704,  which  being 
multiplied  by  640,  the  number  of  acres  in  a  square  mile,  gives 
32,450,560  acres. 

In  1870  the  State  of  New  York  contained  4,382,759  inhab- 
itants. North  Carolina,  as  is  seen  in  the  preceding  table  of 
population,  contained  1,070,120  inhabitants,  or  less  than  one- 
fourth  the  number  in  New  York.  Our  agricultural  produc- 
tions during  the  year  1869 — a  year  of  excessive  drouth — bore 
then  about  the  same  proportion  to  the  population  as  did  those 
of  the  more  favored  Northern  States,  while  our  products  were- 
fourfold  more  valuable  in  proportion  to  the  capital  in  vested- 
It  must  be  borne  in  mind,  also,  that  North  Carolina  was  at 
that  date  still  emerging  from  the  disorganization  of  society 
which  resulted  from  the  sudden  abolition  of  slavery,  while 
New  York  was  enjoying  its  wonted  prosperity. 

When  these  facts  are  taken  into  view,  it  must  be  evident 
either  that  our  agriculturists  reap  profits  far  beyond  those  of 
Northern  farmers,  or  that  the  "  cash  value  of  farms  "  in  the 
South,  as  stated  in  the  Census  Report,  conveys  a  very  inad- 
equate idea  of  their  true  value.  It  is  probable  that  the  truth 
lies  between  the  two  extremes  ;  that  while  Southern  agricul- 
ture is  more  profitable  than  the  Northern,  it  is  not  so  in  the 
proportion  of  four  to  one,  and  it  follows,  therefore,  that  our 
agricultural  wealth  is  undervalued  to  the  extent  of  one-halfr 
at  the  least. 

The  aggregate  assessed  value  of  real  and  personal  estate,  in- 
2 


18 


eluding  town   property,  is  given  in   the  Census   Report    as 
follows  : 

Real  Estate,  $  83,322,012 

Personal  Estate,  47,056,610 


Total,  $130,378,622 

Assuming  that  the  assessed  value  is  far  below  the  real,  the 
Superintendent  of  the  Census  has  doubled  these  figures  in  or- 
der to  present  the  true  valuation  of  real  and  personal  estate  in 
North  Carolina,  which  he  states  at  $260,757,244.  But  the  same 
officer  gives  his  estimate  of  the  true  value  of  real  and  personal 
estate  in  New  York  at  more  than  three  times  the  assessed 
value,  so  that  if  he  approximates  correctness,  the  profits  on 
Southern  agriculture  would  be  even  greater  than  fourfold  those 
of  the  North. 

This  depression  of  prices  of  Southern  lands  so  much  below 
their  true  value  cannot  last  long.  Society  is  gradually  settling 
down  on  the  basis  of  free  labor;  and  notwithstanding  occa- 
sional ebullitions  of  passion  in  the  South-west,  there  are  few 
parts  of  the  earth  which  enjoy  more  stable  and  orderly  gov- 
ernments than  the  Southern  States.  This  is  particularly  true 
of  North  Carolina.  No  State  of  the  Union  can  present  a  re- 
cord so  free  from  the  stains  ot  bloodshed,  violence  and  crime. 

The  census  of  1870  shows  certain  facts  very  favorable  to  the 
South,  and  which  we  cannot  refrain  from  bringing  to  the  notice 
of  our  readers. 

Let  us  compare,  for  instance,  certain  statistics  of  the  six  New 
England  and  the  six  South  Atlantic  States,  taking  Virginia 
and  West  Virginia  as  one.  The  white  population,  number  of 
churches,  and  of  church-sittings  of  each  of  those  States  is  as 
follows : 


*i. . 


19 


NEW  ENGLAJND  STATES. 


STATES. 

WHITE       POPU- 
LATION. 

CHUKCHES. 

.    i 

CHURCH     SIT- 
TINGS. 

Maine, 

Vermont, 

New  Hampshire, 

Massachusetts, 

Rhode  Island, 

Connecticut, 

624,809 
329,613 
317,697 
1,443,156 
212,219 
527,549 

1,104 
744 
624 

1,764 

283 
902 

376,738 
270,614 
210,090 
882,317 
125,183 
338,735 

Total, 

.  3,455,043 

5,421 

2,203,677 

SOUTH  ATLANTIC  STATES. 


WHITE   POPU- 

CHURCH    SIT- 

■STATES. 

CHURCHES. 

LATION. 

TINGS. 

Delaware, 

102,221 

252 

87,899 

Maryland, 

605,497 

1,389 

499,770 

Virginia, 

712,089 

2,405 

765,127 

West  Virginia, 

424,033 

1,018 

297,315 

North  Carolina, 

678,470 

2,497 

718,310 

South  Carolina, 

289,667 

1,308 

491,425 

Georgia, 

638,926 

2,698 

801,148 

Total, 

3,450,903 

11,567 

3,660,984 

It  thus  appears  that  with  the  same  white  population,  the  six 
South  Atlantic  States  have  more  than  double  as  many  churches 
and  two-thirds  as  many  more  church-sittings  as  the  six  New 
England  States.  It  may  be  said  that  the  New  England  States 
have  large  foreign  population,  but  this  is  mostly  Catholic,  and 
noted  for  the  liberality  with  which  it  builds  and  equips 
churches.  It  may  be  further  said  that  many  freedmen  churches 


have  been  built  South  6ince  the  war,  by  Northern  contribu- 
tions ;  but  the  increase  in  Southern  churches  in  1870  over  1860 
is  1,296,  andBleaving  those  out  of  the  question  entirely,  the 
3,450,000  white  people  in  the  six  South  Atlantic  States  have 
still  10,271  churches  to  5,421  to  the  3,450T000  people  of  the 
six  New  England  States,  or  within  a  fraction  of  double. 
Granting  churches  to  be  an  exponent  of  civilization,  our  breth- 
ren of  the  North  must  be  tender  hereafter  upon  Southern 
barbarism. 

Another  curious  revelation  of  the  census  of  1870,  taking  the 
same  States,  is  as  to  the  relative  number  of  paupers  and  crim- 
inals in  their  respective  native  white  population — setting  the 
foreigners  of  New  England  and  the  negroes  of  the  South 
Atlantic  States  out  of  the  question.     The  figures  stand  thus  : 


STATES. 

POPULATION. 

PAUPERS. 

ONE  IN 

CRIMINALS. 

ONE  IN 

Maine, 

576,097 

3,149 

183 

255 

2,259 

New  Hampsh'e, 

288,117 

1,739 

166 

199 

1,498 

Vermont, 

282,412 

1,231 

229 

143 

1,975 

Massachusetts, 

1,090,843 

♦5,323 

205 

1,152 

947 

Rhode  Island, 

156,927 

407 

386 

133 

1,180 

Connecticut, 

414,015 

1,123 

369 

215 

1,926 

Total, 

3,808,491 

12,972 

217 

2,097 

1,339 

Delaware, 

93,101 

223 

413 

13 

7,161 

Maryland, 

523,238 

781 

669 

304 

1,718 

Virginia,. 

698,388 

1,942 

360 

331 

2,110 

West    Virginia, 

406,951 

839 

4&5 

138 

2,949 

North  Carolina, 

675,490 

1,119 

604 

132 

5,117 

South  Carolina, 

281,89-1 

888 

318 

130 

2,168- 

Georgia, 

628,173 

1,270 

495 

126 

4,986 

Total, 

3,306,235 

7,062 

468 

1,174 

2,816 

Or  with  half  a  million  more  native  whites,  the  South-Atlantic 
States  have  6,000  fewer  paupers  and  900  fewer  criminals 
among  them  than  the  New  England  States.     If  the  native 


21 

whites  of  the  Southern  States  were  as  poverty-stricken  and 
vicious  as  those  of  New  England,  they  would  have  15,69T 
paupers  instead  of  7,062,  and  2,469  criminals  instead  of  1,174. 
Were  the  native  whites  of  New  England  as  provident  and 
moral  as  those  of  the  South-Atlantic  States,  there  would  be 
among  them  but  6,001  paupers  instead  of  12,972,  and  but 
997  criminals  instead  of  2,097. 

There  are  other  reasons  for  thinking  that  the  day  is  not  dis- 
tant when  the  lands  of  this  State  will  begin  to  command  prices 
commensurate  with  their  intrinsic  value.  The  tide  of  European 
and  Northern  emigration  to  the  far  West  has  already  begun  to 
recoil  as  it  strikes  against  the  arid  plains  which  are  spread  out 
500  miles  in  width  at  the  Eastern  base  of  the  Rocky  Moun- 
tains. The  valleys  amid  those  mountains  are  often  very  fer- 
tile, and  contain  mines  of  silver  and  gold,  which  will  attract 
tens  of  thousands  of  enterprising  and  adventurous  men,  but 
they  will  not  furnish  homes  for  the  millions  that  swarm  out 
from  our  own  Northern  hives  and  those  of  Europe. 

The  Western  base  of  the  Roeky  Mountains,  like  the  East- 
ern, is  almost  a  desert,  which  extends,  indeed,  to  the  Sierra 
Nevada,  and  even  if  we  go  beyond  the  latter  range  of  moun- 
tains, we  find  sterility  the  rule  and  fertility  the  exception. 

This  picture  of  the  far  West  is  true  of  all  the  country  South 
of  the  forty-fourth  parallel  of  latitude,  viz  :  of  all  that  portion 
of  it  which  lies  within  the  parallel  now  inhabited  by  any  con- 
siderable population.  Emigrants  from  Southern  Europe,  that 
is  to  say,  from  Southern  Germany,  from  Great  Britain  and  Ire- 
and,  from  France,  Spain  and  Italy,  will  not  be  attracted  to  the 
cold  and  inhospitable  regions  North  of  this  forty-fourth  par- 
allel— they  will  prefer  rather  the  parallels  which  include  Vir- 
ginia and  North  Carolina,  and  the  States  west  of  them,  as 
well  as  the  uplands  of  the  South  generally.  That  the  day 
cannot  be  distant  when  the  emigrating  current  will  be  diverted 
in  this  direction  is  apparent,  if  we  consider  that  the  public 
lands  which  are  available  for  settlement  as  far  west  as  the  bor- 
ders of  Kansas  and  Nebraska,  are,  for  the  most  part,  already 


22 


disposed  of,  and  that  those  embraced  within  these  new  States 
are  being  taken  up  with  a  degree  of  rapidity  which  will  leave 
none  in  the  course  of  two  or  three  years  outside  of  Govern- 
ment grants  and  appropriations.  The  following  statements 
from  the  last  annual  report  of  the  Commissioner  of  the  Gen- 
eral Land  Office  will  furnish  evidence  of  this  truth  : 

PUBLIC  LANDS  DISPOSED  OP  IN  ALL  WAYS,  EXCEPT  IN  GRANTS  TO 
RAILROADS,  DURING  FISCAL  TEAR  1873,  IN  CERTAIN  WESTERN 
STATES. 

ACRES. 

Ohio,  702 

Indiana,  3,284 

Illinois,  2,545 

Missouri,.  142,083 

Iowa,  90,642 

Kansas,  944,269 

Nebraska,  884,381 

Michigan,  676,791 

Wisconsin,  472,423- 

Minnesota,  627,884 

It  is  seen  in  the  above  table  that  in  the  States  of  Ohio,  In- 
diana and  Illinois  only  6,531  acres  of  public  lands  were  dis- 
posed of  during  the  last  fiscal  year — a  fact  which  shows  that 
very  little  remains  under  Government  control.  The  relatively 
small  quantities  disposed  of  in  Missouri  and  Iowa  also  indicate 
that  the  supply  is  nearly  exhausted,  for  it  must  be  borne  in 
mind  that  lands  in  those  populous  States  are  far  more  valuable 
than  lands  in  the  newer  States  or  Territories.  It  follows, 
therefore,  that  if  any  of  real  value  remained  they  would  be 
greedily  seized  upon  in  preference  to  lands  farther  west. 

The  appropriation  of  lands  in  Kansas  and  Nebraska  were 
largely  in  excess  of  the  other  States,  these  being  the  most  de- 
sirable for  settlement.     But  during  each  of  the  fiscal  years 


23 


1871  and  1872,  the  disposition  of  lands  in  Kansas  was  nearly 
twice  as  great  to  individuals  as  during  1873  ;  but  in  addition 
to  the  944,269  acres  disposed  of  in  Kansas,  the  Government 
patented  to  railroad  corporations  in  that  State  2,845,552  acres, 
equal  to  10  counties  of  average  size.  Large  grants  were 
also  made  to  corporations  in  other  States,  and  in  Nebraska, 
also,  the  sales  were  greater  in  1871  than  in  1873.  These  facts 
indicate  that  even  in  these  new  States  the  best  lands  are 
already  appropriated.  The  large  sales  or  entries  in  Michigan, 
Wisconsin  and  Minnesota  during  1873  were  all  made  of  lands 
lying  north  of  the  forty-third  parallel  of  latitude.  They  are, 
especially  in  the  first  two  States,  of  value  on  account  of  their 
pine  forest  rather  than  for  their  fertility.  They  are  very  thinly 
peopled  for  this  reason,  and  must  remain  so  for  a  long  time  to 
come. 

The  effect  of  the  sale  or  transfer  of  the  public  lands  to  indi- 
viduals or  to  corporations  is  to  raise  their  price  in  proportion 
to  the  demand  for  them,  and  thus  to  take  from  them  their  chief 
attractions  to  emigrants.  While  they  were  the  property  of 
the  Government  they  cost,  literally,  under  the  homestead  law, 
only  the  expense  of  the  survey  and  the  fees  paid  for  the  patent 
or  deed,  although  tens  of  thousands  should  move  into  a  district 
in  a  bodjT ;  but  so  soon  as  they  go  into  private  hands  the 
owners  are  sure  to  raise  the  price  in  proportion  as  the  buyers 
multiply  in  numbers.  The  result  has  been  that  in  all  the 
western  country  this  side  of  the  Mississippi  river,  and  indeed 
of  the  borders  of  Kansas  and  Nebraska,  the  price  of  land  is 
much  higher  than  it  is  in  North  Carolina.  As  population  in- 
creases in  those  prosperous  States  land  will  go  up  higher,  and 
the  effect  must  be  to  turn  the  current  of  emigration  southward. 

Apart  from  the  great  agricultural  advantages  which  the 
South  possesses  in  its  staples,  cotton  and  tobacco,  it  has  another 
treasure  in  its  forests,  which  one  day — and  that  a  not  distant 
one — will  give  to  the  lands  of  the  people  a  high  market  value. 
The  older  Northern  States  have  already  been  denuded  of  their 
forests,  at  least  of  their  heavy  timber,  while  the  fertile  West 


24 


is,  for  the  most  part,  a  vast  prairie  or  meadow,  which  will  not 
produce  trees  of  great  size,  for  want  of  a  6iib-soil  or  rich  clay 
base.  The  people  of  those  States  now  rely  on  the  pine  forests 
of  Michigan  and  Wisconsin  for  their  lumber,  of  which  they 
are  great  consumers,  their  fences,  as  well  as  their  houses,  being 
constructed  of  imported  lumber. 

The  future,  therefore,  is  full  of  promise  for  the  South,  and 
especially  for  North  Carolina,  and  already  onr  people  have 
ceased  to  emigrate  southward,  and  the  natural  increase  of  our 
population  during  the  current  decade  will  add  200,000  to  the 
census  returns  of  1880.  We  are  also  receiving  immigrants 
from  Canada  and  Europe  and  from  the  States  north  of  us. 
Our  towns  are  growing,  new  towns  are  springing  into  existence, 
and  thus  home  markets  are  being  created  and  labor  is  becom- 
ing diversified.  The  prosperity  of  the  State  in  the  future — 
the  near  future — is  assured,  and  fortunate  will  he  be  who  comes 
here  to  invest  his  capital  in  our  soil  while  it  is  yet  cheap  and 
seeking  for  buyers. 

For  a  fuller  description  of  the  Eastern,  Middle  and  Western 
Divisions  of  the  State,  we  refer  the  reader  to  the  following 
pages,  which  will  give  a  concise  and  accurate  statement  of  the 
several  portions  of  the  State  in  a  clear  and  satisfactory  manner, 
in  the  order  in  which  each  is  taken  up. 

EASTERN   NORTH    CAROLINA. 

The  real  difficulty  in  the  way  of  foreign  immigration  to  the 
South  was  removed  by  the  issue  of  "  the  war  between  the 
States,"  since  which  time  there  has  existed  no  valid  reason 
why  the  tide  that  has  rolled  so  long  West  and  North-west, 
should  not  have  set  in  strongly  southward.  It  is  a  very  singu- 
lar fact,  but  one  nevertheless  true,  that  even  among  the  intel- 
ligent in  our  own  country,  the  character  of  North  Carolina, 
material  and  physical,  has  been  but  imperfectly  known  ;  and  it 
is  but  quite  lately  that  she  is  being  presented  to  the  world  in 
her  true  light.     Previous  to  the  war,  but  little  else  than  slave 


labor  was  employed,  and  consequently  no  inducement  was 
offered  to  the  teeming  population  of  the  Old  World  to  settle 
within  her  limits. 

This  barrier  to  our  State  prosperity  has  been  removed,  and 
our  brethren  of  the  North  and  North-west,  and  the  people 
across  the  water,  will  now  find  a  hearty  welcome  to  homes  of 
plenty  and  peace  in  a  clime  richly  favored,  on  a  soil  fertile  and 
productive,  amidst  scenery  varying  from  the  grand  to  the  beauti- 
ful, adapted,  by  its  diversified  latitude,  to  the  taste  and  preju- 
dice of  almost  every  nationality. 

Our  terrible  civil  war,  and  its  concomitant  evils,  have  no 
doubt  repelled  the  hardy  and  industrious  European  from  a 
settlement  in  her  borders.  This  seething  chaldron  has  long 
since  ceased  to  bubble,  and  now  law  and  order  prevail — justice 
is  dnlj  administered  in  her  courts,  and  the  rights  of  every  man, 
irrespective  of  race  or  color,  are  impartially  protected.  In  ad- 
dition, it  might  be  said  that  churches  crown  her  mountains 
and  nestle  among  her  valleys,  while  seats  of  learning,  from  the 
High  School  to  the  endowed  College,  are  springing  in 
numberless  localities.  The  Free  School,  that  great  palladium 
of  liberty,  has  been  established  upon  a  sure  and  permanent 
basis.  It  is  the  better  policy  to  speak  and  write  the  exact 
truth,  and  not  hold  forth  an  alluring  bait,  which  may  crumble 
in  the  future  into  the  bitter  ashes  of  cruel  disappointment ; 
and  with  a  view  to  set  before  those  who  may  design  a  change 
of  home,  these  pages  are  prepared,  and  will  picture  no  fanciful 
paradise,  but  exhibit  a  faithful  and  concise  statement  of  the 
agricultural,  mineral  and  commercial  resources  of  North 
Carolina. 

We  will  then  attempt,  first,  a  description  of  the  Eastern  sec- 
tion, against  which  a  foolish  prejudice  has  too  long  existed. 
This  section,  in  many  respects,  is  incomparably  the  finest  in 
the  State,  and  by  all  odds  is  the  most  fertile  and  productive. 
A  narrow  belt  of  sandy  beach  extends,  broken  here  and  there 
by  deep  inlets,  the  entire  coast  of  the  State.  This  small  and 
inconsiderable  area  offers  no  very  great  inducement  to  the  im- 


26 

migrant,  as  it  is  in  many  parts  barren  of  vegetation,  and  swept 
in  the  winter  by  fierce  and  bitter  tempests.  Strange  to  say, 
however,  it  is  thickly  inhabited  by  a  hardy  race  of  fishermen 
and  pilots.  In  the  summer  it  is  the  resort  of  invalids,  who 
rapidly  gather  health  and  strength  from  the  salubrity  of  the 
climate  and  the  sea-breeze.  A  diminutive  pony,  ranch  resem- 
bling the  Shetland,  is  found  here.  He  requires  neither  6tabling 
nor  feeding,  and  roams,  many  hundred  in  a  drove,  through  the 
marshes,  which  are  ever  green  with  a  coarse  but  nutritious 
grass. 

Even  this  portion  of  the  State  is  not  without  its  attractions. 
White  cliffs  rise  out  of  an  emerald  sea  ;  the  glittering  banks, 
the  blue  outline  of  the  coast,  a  string  of  islets,  some  barren 
some  verdant,  and  the  endless  waste  of  the  dim  Atlantic,  an 
unrivalled  waste  of  sea  and  sky,  surround  this  section  of  Caro- 
lina. Crossing  this  sand-bar,  and  a  world  of  interior  waters 
bursts  upon  the  view,  watering  a  section  varying  from  sixty  to 
one  hundred  miles  in  breadth,  by  one  hundred  and  fifty  in 
length,  cloven  by  lovely  sounds,  fringed  with  islands,  pene- 
trated by  broad  and  deep  rivers,  with  interesting  peculiarities 
of  climate  and  vegetation,  and  with  the  oldest  atmosphere  of 
life  which  can  now  be  breathed  in  the  United  States. 

To  number  the  immense  flocks  of  wild  ducks,  geese  and 
swan  that  literally  swarm  the  waters  of  the  Currituck,  Croatan, 
Albemarle  and  Pamlico  sounds  during  the  winter,  is  simply 
impossible.  In  the  spring,  vast  6hoals  of  herring  and  shad 
crowd  through  the  inlets  into  the  sounds,  thence  up  all  the 
tributary  rivers  and  creeks.  These  fish  are  caught  mostly  by 
long  seines,  and  is  a  source  of  great  pecuniary  value  to  those  en- 
gaged in  the  business.  This  magnificent  domain  is  well 
watered  by  deep  and  navigable  rivers.  The  Roanoke  connects 
navigation  in  unbroken  continuation  from  the  Atlantic  to  Wel- 
don,  where  four  railroads  centre.  The  Chowan,  another  broad, 
deep  and  beautiful  stream,  empties  into  Albemarle  Sound,  and 
brings  Virginia  in  easy  communication  by  rail  with  a  great 
scope  of  Eastern  North  Carolina. 


27 

An  immense  canal  also  is  in  successful  operation  between 
Norfolk,  Virginia,  and  Currituck  Sound,  thus  making  all  the 
vast  timbered  lands  of  this  section  prospectively  of  great  value. 
A  slight  inspection  of  a  map  of  this  State  will  show  that  in  ad- 
dition to  the  Tar,  the  Neuse,  the  Cape  Fear,  all  noble  streams, 
and  up  which  are  constantly  passing  steamers  and  sail  vessels, 
the  whole  section  to  be  completely  cut  up  by  navigable  water 
courses.  There  is  hardly  a  homestead  throughout  its  length 
and  breadth  that  is  distant  more  than  ten  miles  from  navigable 
waters. 

The  mainland  is  rich  beyond  comparison.  The  prevailing 
character  of  the  scenery  is  pleasant  to  behold.  Old  farm 
houses,  spacious  gardens  and  orchards,  smooth  rich  fields,  and 
the  beautiful  green  of  deciduous  woods.  Still  at  intervals 
there  are  undulations  of  the  soil,  but  no  valleys  of  distinct  out- 
line, and  the  streams,  instead  of  a  rapid,  busy  flow,  loiter  along 
their  channels  with  an  air  of  poetic  indolence.  This  section 
presents  many  of  the  characteristics  peculiar  to  the  peninsula 
bounded  by  the  Chesapeake  and  Delaware  bays  and  the  At- 
lantic, now  famous  for  its  peach  culture,  teeming  with  popula- 
tion, and  rich  in  every  species  of  agricultural  wealth. 

The  word  swamps  seems  to  possess  a  kind  of  terror,  but 
this  word,  in  the  vocabulary  of  the  eastern  man,  does  not  mean 
a  low  piece  of  land  covered  with  water,  and  frequently  the 
swamp  is  much  higher  than  what  is  technically  called  high- 
lands. Moreover  the  bogs  of  Ireland  and  the  lowland  of  Hol- 
land have  not  prevented  the  former  from  being  the  Dairy,  and 
the  latter  the  best  cultivated  country  in  Europe.  In  many 
respects  it  is  a  fine,  open  country,  easily  improved  and  appa- 
rently healthy,  and  offering  such  inducements  in  the  way  of 
mild  winters,  cheap  lands,  and  nearness  to  markets,  that  the 
absence  of  immigration  seems  to  call  for  some  special  explana- 
tion. 

Why  should  even  Eastern  or  Northern  farmers  go  to  Iowa, 
or  Nebraska,  in  comparison  cold  and  sterile  regions,  when  such 
a  section  lies  within  from  twenty-four  to  forty-eight  hours  of 


28 

Baltimore,  Philadelphia  and  New  York  ?  Immerse  plantations 
here,  which  could  not  have  been  purchased  prior  to  the  war  at 
any  price,  are  now  in  the  market  either  by  wholesale  or  retail, 
and  the  hardy  immigrant  who  brings  industry  and  labor,  need 
have  no  fears  about  getting  a  home.  The  whole  country  is 
penetrated  like  the  coast  of  Norway  with  broad,  winding  fiords 
of  the  sounds.  The  winters  are  hardly  ever  severe  enough  to 
fill  the  ice  houses,  and  the  fig  and  the  pomegranate  flourish  in 
the  open  air. 

The  climate  is  healthy  in  spite  of  the  malarious  rumors,  for 
the  large  fraines,  fresh  color  and  apparent  vigor  of  the  people 
are  the  best  testimony.  Luxuries,  such  as  few  lands  can  boast 
of,  lie  in  profusion  and  sufficiently  delicate  for  the  most  fas- 
tidious epicure — the  finest  fish,  crabs  and  oysters  are  at  the 
door;  canvas-back,  red -head  and  other  ducks,  in  the  season  ; 
fruit,  wild  as  well  as  cultivated,  and  easy  communication  with 
the  world.  Throughout  the  whole  extent  the  vine,  natural 
aud  cultivated,  grows  in  the  wildest  profusion,  dissipating  an 
error  but  too  common  that  it  requires  a  hill  country  for  the 
beverage  that  warms  the  brain  aud  looses  the  tongue.  The 
vast  rolling  plains  of  Burgundy  also  do  away  with  this  illusion. 

These  swamp  lands,  when  well  drained,  are  of  inexhaustible 
fertility,  requiring  no  manure,  and  producing  in  their  natural 
state  fabulous  yields  of  cotton,  corn  and  wheat.  In  the  well- 
drained  districts  1,800  pounds  of  seed  cotton  and  forty  bushels 
of  corn  is  no  extraordinary  crop.  Of  course  the  summers  are 
longer  and  the  winters  are  milder  in  the  southern  than  in  the 
northern  portion  of  this  belt,  and  the  climate  i6  coolest  in  sum- 
mer, and  warmest  in  winter,  near  the  coast.  The  great  staple 
productions  are  Indian  corn,  wheat  and  cotton.  The  truck  in- 
terest has  sprung  up  within  the  last  few  years,  and  those  en- 
gaged are  successful^  competing  with  those  localities  which 
have  been  longer  engaged  in  it.  They  are  at  least  a  week 
ahead  of  the  Norfolk  truckers,  a  reference  to  which  will  ap- 
pear in  another  portion  of  this  sketch. 

Every  species  of  grape  ripens  to  perfection — the  Catawba, 


29 


Isabella — but  the  most  valuable  of  all  is  the  Scuppernong, 
The  latter  requires  but  little  attention,  no  pruning,  and  a 
single  vine  will  in  three  to  five  years  cover  100  square  feet. 

Owing  to  the  mildness  of  the  climate,  to  the  density  of  the 
forests,  to  wide  ranges  of  canebrake,  every  domesticated  animal 
thrives  well.  The  cattle  keep  fat  the  year  round,  and  in  many 
localities  are  never  grained  at  all  ;  they  are  merely  marked, 
when  young,  and  turned  loose.  They  multiply  rapidly.  Hogs 
are  numerous,  and  were  it  not  for  wildcats  and  dogs,  sheep 
would  be  more  numerous  here  than  in  Spain  or  Saxony,  as  the 
waste  lauds  would  feed  countless  thousands. 

Of  wild  animals,  it  may  be  said  they  are  plentiful,  but  by 
no  means  dangerous.  In  the  dense  forest  lands  of  the  extreme 
east  bears  are  still  found  in  plenty,  while  the  deer  and  the  fox 
are  numerous  everywhere.  Much  has  been  said  of  the  insalu- 
brity of  this  section,  but  as  no  deadly  diseases  prevail,  it  must 
be  the  result  of  ignorance  and  prejudice.  Consumption  is 
rarely  seen,  unless  imported,  while  the  cholera  and  yellow  fever 
are  totally  unknown.  Surely,  from  dissimilarity  to  their  own 
countries,  this  section  could  not  be  recommended  to  the  Swiss, 
the  Scotch,  or  to  any  mountainous  people,  but  beneath  the  all- 
beholding  sun,  no  land  can  furnish  greater  attractions  to  the 
Hollander,  the  Belgian,  and  the  inhabitants  of  all  low  countries. 

Owing  to  an  ill  founded  prejudice  in  regard  to  the  healthful- 
ness  of  this  section,  and  to  the  consequent  want  of  immigra- 
tion, land  is  much  cheaper  here  than  elsewhere  in  North 
Carolina.  In  consequence  of  cheap  and  abundant  water  facility, 
it  is  not  intersected  by  railroads  to  any  great  extent,  though  it 
is  by  no  means  destitute  of  them.  We  must  not  forget  to 
mention  one  source  of  great,  and  as  yet,  undeveloped  wealth. 
It  is  the  vast  quantity  of  valuable  commercial  timber,  con- 
sisting principally  of  the  heart  pine,  the  cypress,  the  juniper, 
and  the  white  oak,  which  line,  in  primeval  grandeur,  this  en- 
tire scope.  (  rders  for  railroad  ties  are  being  filled  at  remunera- 
tive prices.  These  orders  come  from  the  North,  where  the 
material  is  being   rapidly  exhausted.     The   cypress  and   the 


30 

juniper  are  principally  manufactured  into  shingles.  The  tim- 
ber of  these  trees,  though  soft  and  easily  worked,  has  great 
power  of  duration,  and  being  accessible  to  markets  by  cheap 
outlets,  is  in  great  and  increasing  demand.  The  pine  is  gen- 
erally cut  into  boards  and  shipped  as  far  north  as  Boston,  and 
even  to  foreign  countries.  The  Carolina  pine  has  great  value 
in  market,  due  to  its  superior  quality.  But  a  few  more  years 
must  elapse  ere  this  region,  with  all  its  manifold  attractions  and 
advantages,  will  be  known  and  appreciated  by  those  in  search 
of  pleasant  homes  and  handsome  returns  for  investment.  It, 
of  itself,  could  easily  support  a  population  of  a  million  of  souls. 

MIDDLE   NORTH   CAROLINA. 

It  is  an  easy  thing,  by  drawing  upon  the  imagination,  to 
throw  a  fanciful  lustre  upon  natural  scenery  and  to  enhance 
the  value  and  beauties  of  localities,  but  as  these  papers  &re  de- 
signed for  the  guidance  and  instruction  of  those  who  are  seek- 
ing homes  and  not  terrestrial  paradises,  let  it  be  understood  that 
the  statements  made  are  true,  and  not  ideal  sketches.  Every 
land  from  its  distinctive  peculiarities  has  its  advantages  and 
disadvantages.  We  claim,  however,  that  middle  North  Car- 
olina presents  to  the  immigrant  more  inducements  for  settle- 
ment than  any  other  section  of  like  extent  in  the  United  States. 
The  breath  of  prejudice  cannot  whisper  aught  against  the  ex- 
treme healthfulness  of  its  climate,  the  productiveness  of  its 
soil,  and  the  unusual  refinement  and  intelligence  of  its  popula- 
tion. It  is  equally  removed  from  the  bleakness  of  the  moun- 
tains and  the  humidity  of  the  coast  districts. 

In  this  section  the  absence  of  navigable  rivers  is  compensated 
•by  its  many  railroads  radiating  through  its  entire  scope.  It  is 
moderately  undulating  and  at  times  swelling  into  hills  of  con- 
siderable height.  It  is  nowhere  rugged  or  mountainous,  and 
it  must  not  be  understood  that  it  is  destitute  of  running 
streams,  for  here  are  water  courses  cutting  the  country  like 
threads  of  silver,  and  sufficient  by  their  descent  and  volume  to 


SI 


turn  millions  of  spindles.  The  water  used  for  drinking  is  ob- 
tained by  deep  boring,  but  more  frequently  from  springs  gush- 
ing from  the  base  of  its  hills,  and  as  pure  as  that  which  slaked 
the  thirst  of  the  red  hunter.  It  is  thickly  studded  with  vil- 
lages, towns  and  thriving  railroad  depots.  In  many  places  are 
medicinal  springs  which,  from  the  reputation  of  their  healing 
virtues,  have  attracted  invalids  from  the  North,  East  and  South. 

In  respect  of  schools  and  colleges,  it  is  greatly  in  advance  of 
either  the  Western  or  Eastern  Division  of  the  State.  The 
general  appearance  of  the  country  is  quite  similar  to  Northern 
Italy  and  Southern  France.  It  is  in  direct  contrast  to  the 
Eastern  section,  which  may  be  properly  named  the  Delta  of 
Carolina,  and  which  by  proper  drainage  and  improved  culti- 
vation might  be  made  far  richer  and  more  productive  than 
that  of  Old  Egypt.  It  is  admirably  adapted  to  the  peach,  the 
apple  and  the  vine — indeed,  to  all  the  fruits  of  the  most  happy 
portion  of  the  temperate  zone.  In  addition,  wheat,  barley, 
rye,  and  every  species  of  small  grain  are  cultivated  with  great 
and  improving  success,  while  Indian  maize  and  the  cotton  plant 
thrive  most  luxuriantly. 

Recently,  viticulture  has  been  attempted,  and  an  intelligent 
Frenchman  has  experimentally  shown  middle  North  Carolina 
to  be  as  well  adapted  to  the  growing  of  the  grape  and  the 
making  of  wine  as  the  most  favored  and  sunny  regions  of  the 
old  world,  and  the  day  is  not  far  distant  when  Burgundy  and 
Johannisberg  will  be  expressed  here  and  compete  in  flavor  and 
body  with  those  famous  brands  of  the  old  country.  Far  less 
expense  is  incurred  here  than  there  in  the  manufacture  of 
wine,  for  the  simple  reason  that  the  soil  upon  which  the  vines 
are  grown  is  so  much  cheaper.  Land  there  is  a  great  object ; 
here,  it  is  a  drug  in  the  market.  An  acre  here  will,  in  fee 
simple,  cost  but  little  more  than  the  annual  rent  of  the  same 
quantity  in  Europe.  For  many  years  small  areas  of  Delaware, 
New  Jersey  and  Maryland  gathered  almost  exclusively  the 
golden  harvest  of  the  peach  crop  by  supplying  the  great  cities, 
but  trials  in  the  same  field  made  by  the  natives,  and  on  a 


larger  scale  by  immigrants  from  the  North,  from  Canada,  and 
from  Europe,  have  given  most  remunerative  results  and  shown 
that  the  peach  here  ripens  at  least  one  month  earlier  than  in 
those  States,  and  is  equal,  if  not  superior,  in  flavor  and  size  to 
any  raised  in  the  world. 

It,  of  itself,  is  a  magnificent  domain,  stretching  from   Vir- 
ginia to  South   Carolina,  and    embracing   an    area   of  21,000 
square  miles.     The  sub-soil  is  generally  of  clay,  and  susceptible 
of  the  very  highest  improvement.     It  is  well  drained  by  small, 
but  rapid  rivers,  traversing  the  country  in  every  direction. 
Some  of  the  valleys  of  these  streams  are  famed  for  their  won- 
derful beauty  and  fabulous  fertility.     Those  of  the  Piedmont 
region,  where  the  hill  country  attains  a  higher  elevation  and 
approximates   a  mountainous  character,  are  rich  and   lovely 
beyond  compare.     Immigrants   from    any  part  of  the  world 
need  no  acclimation  here.     There  are  no  swamp  or  fenlands  to 
emit  malaria,  and  the  breeze  that  blows  over  it  is   freighted 
with  the  precious  boon  of  health.     Not  only  are  all  the  cereals 
necessary  for  the  support  of  man  or  beast  produced  in  this  part 
of  North  Carolina,  but  in  the  more  northern  counties  tobacco 
of  most  superior  quality  is   grown   in    large  quantities.     The 
beautiful  hills,  with  the  sweet  nestling  valleys,  are  peculiarly 
adapted  to  every  species  of  grass,  and  cattle  and  stock  of  every 
kind  may  be  raised  in  all-sufficient  quantities  for  consumption 
and  use,  and  export.     The  superior  excellence  of  this  section 
is  that  its  industry  need  not  be  confined  to  a  few  products,  but 
to  an  endless  variety.     Within  its  borders  are  to  be  found  rich 
mines  of  gold,  lead,  iron  and  coal.     The  coal  is  of  excellent 
quality  and  inexhaustible.     It  is  emphatically  the  auriferous 
region  of  the  State,  and   rich   in    the  deposits  of  this  precious 
metal.     The   mines  have  been  worked  successfully  for  many 
years,  and  still  yield  a  decided  profit.     The  ore  is  very  fine  and 
malleable,  and  it  has  been  estimated  that  within  the  last  half 
century  twenty  millions  have  been  furnished  the  currency  and 
the  fine  arts.     The  machinery  employed  has  been  imperfect, 
and  the  capital  invested  small,  and  under   an  improvement  of 


33 


the  former,  and  an  extension  of  the  latter,  there  is  reason  to 
suppose  that  the  extracts  would  be  greatly  enlarged. 

For  building  purposes,  the  granite  of  this  section  is  abundant, 
of  beautiful  complexion,  and  great  durability.  When  taken 
from  the  quarry  it  is  soft  and  easily  worked,  but  hardens  upon 
exposure  and  soon  becomes  hard  as  adamant  or  Italian  marble. 
Rich  veins  of  copper  and  zinc  have  been  discovered.  Every 
kind  of  timber  grows  in  the  still  extensive  and  frequently  yet 
primeval  forests.  The  oak  is  the  predominant  tree,  and  by  its 
numbers  and  beauty  has  given  to  this  section  the  name  of 
"  Oak  Belt." 

With  the  war,  the  desire  to  retain  individually  thousands  of 
acres  of  land,  passed  away,  and  now  many  highly  productive 
farms,  together  with  thousands  of  acres  of  virgin  forest,  are  in 
the  market.  This  whole  scope  of  the  State  is  now  in  easy  and 
rapid  communication  with  the  ports  not  only  of  North  Caro- 
lina, but  of  Virginia  and  South  Carolina.  This  rich  field  for 
the  expansion  of  every  industry,  by  its  climate,  by  its  salu- 
brity, by  its  fertility,  is  an  inviting  one  to  the  immigrant  from 
any  part  of  the  whole  known  world.  Its  chief  and  pressing 
need  is  men  of  industry,  of  skill  and  enterprize,  and  the  in- 
ducements offered  are  many  and  tempting.  A  social,  moral 
and  religious  and  cultivated  people  will  extend  a  generous 
welcome  to  the  stranger  in  search  of  pleasant  homes  and  cheap 
lands.  No  obstacles  will  be  thrown  in  his  way,  but  every  fa- 
cility for  inspection  before  settlement  or  investment.  Here 
no  tropical  sun,  like  that  of  Brazil,  brings  languor  by  its 
sweltering  heat.  A  case  of  sunstroke  is  a  thing  unknown. 
No  deadly  epidemics  prevail;  the  cholera  cannot  march  over 
its  hills,  the  breeze  is  too  pure  for  his  pale  lips  to  breathe. 
The  yellow  fever  has  never  been  known,  even  in  a  single 
instance.  The  winters  are  mild  and  genial,  yet  sufficiently 
cool  to  be  healthy  and  invigorating.  No  ice  freeze  congeals 
her  streams ;  no  snowy  mantle  covers  her  homesteads  and 
pleasant  landscapes.  Unlike  the  States  of  the  North-west, 
whither  the  foreign  element  has  BO^long  tended,  and  where  at; 


34 


least  six  months  of  intense  cold  prevail,  its  climate  is  genial 
and  pleasant  the  year  round.  No  region  possesses  so  many 
attractions  to  immigrants  within  the  broad  limits  of  the  United 
States ;  no  spot  is  more  favored  by  nature  ;  and  soon  its  many 
advantages  will  elicit  the  hand  of  skill  to  restore  its  prosperity, 
and  will  cause  thronging  thousands  to  make  it  their  home. 

We  have  spoken  already  of  the  water  power  of  this  region  ; 
it  must  be  added  that  it  has  already  to  some  extent  been  util- 
ized— cotton  factories  are  springing  up,  flouring  mills  being 
erected — iudeed,  manufactures  are  receiving  unusual  atten- 
tion ;  so  it  will  be  seen  at  a  glance,  that  not  only  the  hardy 
agriculturist,  but  also  the  stone  mason,  the  mechanic  and  the 
machinist  can  here  find  ample  scope  for  the  display  of  their 
several  capacities. 

In  concluding  our  remarks  upon  Middle  Carolina,  candor 
compels  us  to  say  that  it  is  altogether  incomparably  the  finest 
and  most  intelligent  part  of  the  State,  presenting  more  advan- 
tages and  fewer  disadvantages.  The  Capital  of  the  State  is  in 
itslimi  •',  ad,  indeed,  with  but  few  exceptions  nearly  all  o* 
the  thriving  towns  and  villages,  many  of  which  are  making 
rapid  strides  in  improvement,  in  architecture  and  in  population. 

WESTERN   NORTH    CAROLINA. 

This  portion  of  North  Carolina  is  very  rugged  and  moun- 
tainous, broken  here  and  there  by  magnificent  valleys  of  most 
wonderful  fertility.  Nature  here  has  done  her  work  on  a 
grand  and  sublime  scale.  It  embraces  quite  one  third  of  the 
entire  area  of  the  whole  State,  and  commences  prop 
base  of  the  Blue  Ridge  mountains,  the  water-sub.  wh  i- 

vides  the  waters  falling  into  the  Atlantic  from  those  of  the 
Mississippi  valley.  It  extends  to  the  Alleghany  mountains, 
the  dividing  line  between  North  Carolina  and  Tennessee.  It 
reaches  from  the  southern  boundary  of  Yirginia  to  the  north- 
ern limits  of  South  Carolina.  It  is  a  most  beautiful  section, 
and  in  it  is,  perhaps,  the  most  lovely  scenery  in  America.  The 


35 


streams,  though  numerous,  are  of  course  not  navigable  ;  though 
pure,  limpid  and  sparkling  as  they  flow — broad  and  majestic 
often  in  their  sweep — they  are  admirably  adapted  by  nature, 
in  every  respect,  to  serve  the  purpose  of  countless  manufacto- 
ries. These  streams,  even  in  the  higher  valleys,  are  of  suffi- 
cient size,  and  before  they  escape  into  Tennessee,  they  have  a 
descent  of  more  than  a  thousand  feet.  The  Merrimac  at 
Lowell,  Massachusetts,  now  one  of  the  busiest  manufacturing 
marts  in  the  United  States,  is  much  smaller  than  the  French 
Broad  at  Asheville.  This  river  has  a  fall  of  over  six  hundred 
feet  in  thirty  miles.  Scarcely  a  neighborhood  is  destitute  of 
waterfalls  for  all  practical  uses.  For  beauty  and  sublimity  its 
numerous  cascades,  its  tumbling  cataracts,  its  glens,  its  grottoes, 
its  caves  with  their  subterranean  streams,  will  not  only  chal- 
lenge comparison,  but  rival  any  land  of  similar  scope  beneath 
the  sun. 

Nineteen-twentieths  of  the  whole  region  is  elevated  from 
eighteen  hundred  to  thirty-live  hundred  feet  above  the  ocean. 
As  a  summer  resort,  with  its  delightful  climate,  it  is  far  supe- 
rior to  that  of  Switzerland  even.  No  icy  puffs  from  vast  wastes 
of  drifting  snow  ever  chill  the  tourist  or  freeze  the  invalid — no 
glaciers  or  falling  avalanshea  threaten  destruction  to  its  peace- 
ful valleys  and  thriving  villages  at  the  base  of  its  towering 
mountains.  It  is  free  from  every  miasmatic  disease,  and  fa- 
vorable, even  in  mid-winter,  to  lung  affections,  as  will  be  par- 
ticularly demonstrated  in  another  part  of  these  pages. 

Surrounded  on  every  side  by  lower  and  warmer  regions,  its 
winters  are  mild,  and  snow  seldom  remains  upon  the  ground 
more  than  a  week  at  a  time.  There  are  many  peaks  among 
its  innumerable  mountains  over  six  thousand  feet  above  the 
sea.  A  striking  natural  feature  of  these  mountains  must  in- 
vite attention.  On  the  loftieet  of  them  is  a  thick,  black  vege- 
table mould,  exceedingly  rich,  and  producing,  even  at  great 
elevations,  a  growth  as  luxuriant  as  in  the  swamps  of  the  East- 
ern Division  of  the  State.  The  balsam  tree,  for  instance,  at- 
tains a  height  of  a  hundred  and  fifty  feet  ou  the  culminating 


3G 


point  of  the  Alleghany  ridge.  The  grass  upon  their  very  tops 
waves  in  the  greatest  plenty,  and  would  feed  for  summer  range 
any  number  of  cattle  and  sheep.  So  few  treeless  tracts  appear 
even  upon  the  highest  summits — and  those  are  invariably 
clothed  with  grass — that  the  practical  Redman  has  called  them 
the  footprints  of  the  Evil  One,  as  he  strode  from  mountain  to 
mountain.  No  section  of  the  State — perhaps  of  any  State — is 
better  timbered  than  this  is.  The  white  pine  and  the  hemlock 
stand  thick  along  many  streams.  Hardwood  is  most  generally 
found,  however.  Every  variety  of  the  oak  is  abundant,  and 
of  great  size.  The  chestnut,  hickory,  from  whose  giant  boughs 
drop  vast  numbers  of  rich  nuts  in  the  autumn  ;  the  poplar, 
superior  in  beauty  to  those  of  Lombardy ;  the  black  walnut, 
the  locust,  most  excellent  and  beautiful  wood  for  the  costliest 
furniture,  line  every  stream,  ascend  every  slope,  crown  every 
elevation. 

The  soil  is  extremely  fertile,  and  there  are  few  of  the  lands 
of  this  whole  region  too  steep  for  cultivation.  The  crops  of 
Indian  corn,  wheat,  oats  and  rye  are  excellent.  The  Irish  po- 
ato  finds  here  its  largest  development,  but  pre-eminently  in 
the  size  and  flavor  of  its  apples,  it  excels.  The  peach  thrives, 
but  not  nearly  so  well  as  in  the  Middle  Division.  It  is  em* 
phatically  the  home  of  the  grasses,  every  species  growing  finely,. 
The  grape  is  thrifty,  and  grows  abundantly.  The  mountain 
sides  of  this  region  could  be  clothed  with  every  variety  that  is 
cultivated  upon  the  slopes  of  the  Alps  in  France  and  Switzer- 
land. And  when  railroads  permeate  this  country,  it  will  be 
So.  With  but  little  attention,  all  kinds  of  live  stock  can  be 
raised  with  facility.  Sheep  culture  has  already  received  mark* 
ed  attention,  and  proven  to  be  eminently  successful.  Horses 
and  horned  cattle  are  often  raised  without  ever  being  fed,  find- 
ing abundant  and  nutritious  pasturage  on  the  evergreen  or 
winter  grasses,  which  grow  along  the  sides  of  ;the  mountains. 
The  entire  country  is  full  of  metalic  ore  of  various  kinds.  Iroo 
Ore  exists  in  the  greatest  abundance  in  many  places.  The  mag- 
netic, which  is  frequently  found,  yields  an  iron  equal  to  the 


37 


best  Swede.  Copper  ore  is  also  found  in  many  counties,  and 
•where  it  has  been  worked,  the  yield  has  been  large  and  prom- 
ising. Gold,  silver,  zinc  and  lead  have  been  with  profit  mined 
for  at  certain  points. 

While  no  part  of  this  section  would  be  termed  rocky  in 
comparison  with  the  New  England  States,  still  every  kind  of 
rock,  large  and  small,  is  scattered  with  a  liberal  hand  on  every 
side.  The  inhabitants  have  no  need  of  burned  clay  for  the 
construction  of  chimneys  or  even  of  dwellings — while  for  ex- 
terior decoration,  marble,  both  of  the  purest  white  and  deep- 
est red,  is  plentiful.  In  Cherokee  county  there  is  a  large 
mountain  composed  almost  entirely  of  the  most  beautiful  red 
marble. 

The  immigrant  will  find  but  very  few  negroes,  as  they  con- 
stitute scarcely  one-twelfth  of  the  population.  So  abundant 
are  the  necessaries  of  life,  through  want  of  transportation  to 
markets,  that  they  are  exceedingly  cheap,  and  with  but  little 
capital  the  settler  can  obtain  his  supply  and  commence  his 
business,  whatever  it  may  be.  The  population  is  so  sparse, 
compared  with  the  extent  of  territory,  that  the  price  of  land 
is  exceedingly  low.  A  very  brief  mention  has  been  made  of  the 
valleys.  Some  of  them  deserve  a  more  extended  notice.  The 
valley  of  the  French  Broad  is  becoming  quite  famous  for  its 
fertility  and  loveliness — through  it,  the  lordly  river,  fed  by  per- 
petual mountain  springs,  rushes  with  a  varying  current.  At 
times  it  is  so  placid  and  its  banks  recede  so  wildly  as  to  resem- 
ble a  lake  locked  up  between  the  everlasting  hills !  Again, 
contracted  and  rapid  in  its  flow,  it  boils  and  foams  with  cas- 
cade fury.  The  vale  widens  as  it  descends  from  the  crags 
above  and  melts  into  the  general  softness  of  an  Italian  scene. 
It  is  the  most  fertile,  the  most  beautiful  of  all  the  valleys,  and 
possesses  unrivalled  charms.  Its  thick  and  almost  perpetual 
foliage,  its  groves  of  giant  trees,  its  woods  of  chestnut,  the 
waving  fields  of  wheat,  its  vineyards  climbing  up  the  moun- 
tain sides,  its  temperate  air,  its  peaceful  abodes  of  ease  and  re- 
finement, its  innocent  and  happy  people,  seem  to  rest  in  per- 


38 


feet  peace  beneath  the  shelter  of  the  encircling  mountains. 
At  times,  a  wild  ravine  opens  to  the  view  pierced  by  a  fierce 
mountain  torrent.  Extensive  and  well  cultivated  plantations 
are  on  every  side.  In  it  are  green  meadows  and  wide  grazing 
pastures,  pure  gushing  springs,  noisy,  babbling  brooks.  Bra- 
cing breezes  are  ever  playing  from  the  mountain-tops,  and 
cool  nights  ensue.  Through  these  streams  the  scaleless  moun- 
tain trout  flash  in  silver  radiance,  and  the  notes  of  sweet  sing- 
ing birds  are  forever  floating,  and  through  the  forests  the  wild 
deer  still  roam  in  unconfined  freedom.  Upon  the  banks  of 
this  river  the  "Warm  Springs  are  situated,  valuable  medicinally 
both  for  bathing  and  drinking.  These  springs  are  a  remarka- 
ble phenomenon  in  nature,  for  though  but  a  few  steps  removed 
from  the  clear,  cool  and  freestone  water  of  the  river,  their 
temperature  ranges  from  98  to  102  degrees. 

In  the  extreme  Southwest,  which  consists  of  four  counties, 
are  some  of  the  grandest  mountains  and  loveliest  rivers  that 
the  eye  ever  rested  upon,  with  broad,  fertile  valleys  stretched 
out  as  far  as  the  eye  can  reach.  The  valley  of  the  Pigeon 
River,  in  Haywood  county,  is  superb  in  loveliness — a  paradise 
of  every  essential  to  human  happiness.  The  rippling  stream 
murmurs  the  very  music  of  the  grand  old  mountains.  Em- 
bosomed among  theKantahala  mountains  in  Macon  county,  is  a 
vale  and  river  of  the  same  name — no  prettier  river  exists  on 
earth,  while  the  valley  is  such  as  might  be  the  creation  of  a 
Fairy's  wand.  The  Falls  of  the  Tnckasegee  in  Jackson  county, 
has  been  pronounced  by  those  whose  business  it  has  been  to 
travel,  to  be  the  finest  in  the  world.  The  hardy  Yandois  from 
the  Piedmont  valleys  of  Italy  would  find  here  a  congenial 
home,  where  he  could  enjoy  his  Apostolic  creed,  untrammelled 
by  Pomish  Priests,  and  at  the  same  time  view  scenes  familiar 
to  him  from  infancy.  Many  a  Pra-Del-Nor  frowns  in  terrible 
grandeur  up  the  rugged  defiles — mountains  with  heads  wrap- 
ped in  clouds,  but  never  capped  with  snow  save  in  the  depth 
of  winter,  stand  like  grim  sentinels  and  frown  across  the  lovely 
valley  at  his  majestic  neighbors. 


39 

The  valley  of  Valley  river,  in  Cherokee  county,  is  also 
most  beautiful,  and  in  fertility  does  not  deceive  its  looks.  Not 
only  is  the  soil  fertile,  but  there  is  in  the  hillsides  a  mineral 
wealth  perfectly  inexhaustible.  In  many  instances  the  very 
chimneys  are  built  of  pure  white  marble.  It  is  evident  that 
this  vale  contains  more  undeveloped  wealth  than  any  section  of 
the  same  size  in  the  world.  Its  equal  can  be  seen  nowhere, 
and  its  superior  would  be  too  precious  for  earth.  The  heart  is 
alive  to  the  sense  of  the  beautiful  only  when  looking  at  its 
loveliness.  Here  is  a  section,  grand,  healthy  and  mountain- 
ous, that  should  command  immigration — a  section,  in  which 
nature  has  done  everything,  art  but  little.  The  woods,  the 
vales,  the  running  streams  stand  in  their  primitive  and  lovely, 
but  yet  rough  grandeur,  seeming  to  invite  by  their  neglected 
condition  the  hand  of  skill  and  taste.  In  these  secluded  vales 
beneath  the  shadow  of  the  highest  mountains  in  the  United 
States  east  of  the  Rocky,  are  homes  ready  for  the  hardy  im- 
migrant who  groans  beneath  despotism  and  desires  to  find 
spots  congenial  to  the  haunts  trod  by  them  in  infancy,  in  man- 
hood, and  still  to  be  trod  by  them  in  their  old  age. 


ON  THE  CLIMATE  OF  NORTH  CAROLINA. 


BY   DR.    PHILLIPS,   OF   DAVIDSON   COLLEGE. 


"  The  term  climate"  according  to  Humboldt,  "  taken,  in  its 
most  genial  sense,  indicates  all  the  changes  in  the  atmosphere 
which  sensibly  affect  our  organs,  such  as  temperature,  hu- 
midity, variations  in  the  barometrical  pressure,  the  calm  state 
of  the  air,  or  the  action  of  the  winds,  the  amount  of  electric 
tension,  the  purity  of  the  atmosphere,  and  finally  the  degree 
of  ordinary  transparency  and  clearness  of  the  sky,  which  is 
not  only  important  with  respect  to  the  increased  radiation 
from  the  earth,  the  organic  developments  of  plants  and  the 
ripening  of  fruits,  but  also  with  reference  to  its  influence  on 
the  feelings  and  mental  condition  of  men." 

According  to  Professor  Loomis,  "  climate  depends  upon  the 
mean  temperature  of  the  year  ;  upon  that  of  each  month,  and 
each  day  ;  npon  the  maximum  and  the  minimum  temperatures ; 
upon  the  frequency  and  suddenness  of  the  atmospheric  changes ; 
upon  the  transparency  of  the  atmosphere,  and  the  amount  of  so- 
lar radiation ;  upon  the  moisture  of  the  air  and  of  the  earth ;  upon 
the  prevalence  of  fogs  and  dew  ;  the  amount  of  rain  and  snow  ; 
the  frequency  of  thunder  storms  and  hail ;  the  direction,  force, 
and  dryness  of  the  winds,  &c.  All  these  particulars  can  only 
be  determined  by  long  and  careful  observation." 

These  "  long  and  careful  observations "  have  never  been 
taken  in  North  Carolina,  or  if  taken,  have  not  been  accessible 
to  me.  The  only  meteorological  observations  to  which  I  have 
access  at  present  were  made  during  the  twenty  years  ending 
with  1862,  at  the  University  of  North  Carolina,  by  the  late 
Dr.  Phillips.     These  can,  of  course,  give  only  a  very  limited 


41 


view  of  the  general  climate  of  the  State,  a  climate  which  our 
State  Geologist  pronounces  to  be — in  consequence  of  the  di- 
versity of  elevation  between  its  eastern  and  western  limits — 
as  various  as  if  its  length  extended  northwards,  with  but  the 
general  elevation  of  its  eastern  end. 

The  Agricultural  Society  of  North  Carolina  cannot  propose 
to  itself  a  more  important  work  than  the  keeping  a  register  of 
the  weather,  the  heights  of  the  barometer  and  thermometer, 
the  degrees  of  cloudiness,  the  direction  and  force  of  the  pre- 
vailing winds  and  the  depths  of  the  rainfall  for  each  day  in 
the  year  at  say — Edenton  and  Newbern,  for  Eastern  North 
Carolina ;  at  Milton,  Kaleigh,  Fayetteville  and  "Wilmington, 
for  Middle  North  Carolina ;  at  Wilkesboro',  Morganton  and 
Rutherfordton  for  the  Piedmont  country,  and  at  Jefferson, 
Burnsville  and  Murphy,  for  the  country  beyond  the  Blue 
Ridge.  If  these  observations  were  continued  for  only  ten 
years  they  would  throw  much  light  on  the  now  latent  forces 
in  the  climate  of  our  State. 

According  to  Humboldt:  "In  order  to  procure  potable 
wine,  it  is  requisite  that  the  mean  annual  heat  should  exceed 
49  degrees  (Fahr.),  the  winter  mean  should  be  upwards  of  33 
degrees,  and  the  summer  upwards  of  64  degrees."  It  remains 
to  be  seen  whether  these  numbers  have  the  same  value  on  the 
western  that  they  possess  on  the  eastern  side  of  the  Atlantic 
Gulf  stream.  Observations  by  painstaking  men  of  methodical 
habits,  and  varied  experiments  by  men  who  are  interested  in 
the  welfare  of  the  farmer,  only  can  determine  these  questions, 
not  only  for  the  grape,  but  for  all  other  fruits  and  for  the 
cereals.  Observations  may  have  already  been  made  which 
need  only  to  be  reduced  to  their  means,  and  compared  with 
others,  to  settle  many  climatic  mysteries  now  considered  in 
vain.  Partial  observations  are  better  than  none,  and  it  would 
be  another  claim  on  public  gratitude  were  this  society  to  bring 
them  to  light.  The  collection  of  such  facts  is  a  work  eminently 
suited  to  the  habits  and  tastes  of  the  ladies,  who,  besides  doing 
a  really  valuable  public  service,  would  be  well  rewarded  by 


42 


increased  enterprise  in  the  introduction  among  us  of  new 
vegetables  for  their  garden,  or  flowers  for  their  lawns.  Nature 
has  its  laws,  which  it  obeys  unerringly,  and  she  becomes  our 
willing  handmaid  when  we  invoke  her  services  through  those 
laws.  A  personal  appeal  by  this  society  to  individuals  living 
at  or  near  the  points  specified,  who,  for  the  love  of  science 
and  the  interests  of  their  State,  will  make  and  record  these  ob- 
servations, and  send  them  annually  to  the  office  of  the  society 
for  discussion  and  comparison,  will,  it  cannot  be  doubted,  be 
successful.  The  Smithsonian  Institute,  at  Washington,  would 
no  doubt  furnish  the  necessary  instruments  on  condition  of  re- 
ceiving copies  of  the  observations. 

The  latitude  of  the  University  of  North  Carolina  is  not  far 
from  35  degrees,  54  minutes,  21  seconds  north,  and  its  longi- 
tude is  about  79  degrees,  17  minutes,  30  seconds  west  of  Lon- 
don. The  peculiarities  of  its  situation  are  so  well  known  to 
North  Carolinians,  that  I  shall  not  occupy  your  time  in  de- 
scribing them.  The  journal  to  which  I  have  had  access,  kept 
with  great  regularity  and  exactness  for  twenty  years,  gives  it  a 
mean  annual  temperature  of  61  degrees,  (Fahr.)  If  we  adopt, 
for  want  of  any  other,  the  law  of  variation  according  to  lat- 
itude, which  Humboldt  assigns  to  the  western  coast  of  the  At- 
lantic between  Boston  and  Charleston,  viz :  If  degrees  for 
every  degree  of  latitude,  we  will  have  on  our  Virginia  border 
a  mean  annual  temperature  of  about  59  degrees,  and  on  our 
South  Carolina  border  about  63  degrees  ;  that  is,  where  the 
configuration  of  the  country  and  the  constitution  of  the  soil 
are  about  the  same  as  in  Chapel  Hill. 

These  limits,  59  degrees  and  63  degrees,  will  include  the 
mean  annual  temperature  of  the  Bermuda  Islands,  the  Azores, 
the  Iberian  Peninsula,  the  southern  part  of  Italy  and  of  Greece, 
Asia  Minor,  Persia,  Afghanistan,  Thibet,  the  central  provinces 
of  China,  the  coast  of  China  about  Ningpo  and  Shanghai,  the 
southern  part  of  the  Japan  Empire,  and,  crossing  the  Pacific 
ocean,  the  valleys  of  the  San  Joaquin   and   Sacramento  rivers 


43 


in  California,  Southern  Arizona  and  Arkansas,  together  with 
Northern  Mississipi  and  Alabama  and  Georgia. 

Though  these  countries  are  isothermal  with  North  Carolina, 
it  would  not  be  proper  to  infer  that  they  all  have  the  same 
climate.  For  it  must  be  recollected  that  the  mean  annual 
temperature  is,  according  to  Humboldt,  but  one  of  sevex,  and 
according  to  Loomis,  but  one  of  seventeen  elements  in  the  con- 
stitution of  a  climate.  Another  of  the  elements  is  the  pressure 
of  the  barometer.  The  yearly  mean  of  this  pressure  for  ten 
years  beginning  with  1S44,  was,  at  Chapel  Hill,  29.682  inches 
of  mercury.  This  weight  of  air  put  North  Carolina  in  the 
same  category  with  the  country  around  Natchez,  Aden,  Arch- 
angel and  Yakutsk.  On  the  equator  the  mean  yearly  is  about 
29.616  inches.  During  these  ten  years  the  air  at  Chapel  Hill 
was  uniformly  heavier  about  9  A.  M.  It  was  generally  highest 
at  sunrise.  These  numbers  evidently  associate  North  Carolina 
with  a  different  geographical  zone  from  that  in  which  the 
annual  temperature  placed  her. 

Although  the  information  given  by  this  journal  is  but  local, 
and  not  applicable  to  the  State  in  general,  yet  to  indicate  what 
are  the  important  facts  for  those  who  wish  to  understand  the 
climate  of  a  country,  I  will  state  that  it  gives  to  the  winter 
months  at  Chapel  Hill  a  mean  temperature  of  40  degrees,  to 
the  spring  months  60  degrees,  to  the  summer  75  degrees, 
and  to  the  autumn  62  degrees.  These  numbers  are  not  very 
different  from  those  given  in  Loomis'  Meteorology  for  San 
Diego,  in  California. 

From  the  tables  of  the  journal  I  find  that  the  months  which 
show  most  rainy  days — May,  July  and  August — also  afford 
most  rain.  The  rainiest  month  during  six  years  was  July ; 
the  dryest  was  June.  May  came  next  to  July,  and  November 
to  June.  The  annual  average  of  rain  at  Chapel  Hill  was  (for 
six  years)  45^  inches  ;  that  is,  had  it  not  run  off  as  it  fell,  the 
rain  of  each  year  would  have  formed  for  all  the  hills  and 
valleys  round  the  "  Old  South  Building"  a  layer  of  water  one 
and  a  quarter  yards  deep.     Yet  that  section  of  North  Carolina 


44 

belongs  to  what  is  known  as  "  the  dry  streak."  During  nine 
years  frost  occurred  but  once  as  early  as  September  24th.  It 
varied  in  its  first  appearance  for  eight  years  from  October  7th 
to  October  24th. 

I  am  painfully  aware  of  the  insufficiency  of  the  facts  I  have 
presented,  to  give  a  general  notion  of  the  climate  of  North 
Carolina.  I  shall  be  satisfied,  however,  if  the  attention  of  the 
society  be  aroused  to  the  importance  of  the  subject,  and  some 
schemes,  in  consequence,  be  devised  by  which  precise  informa- 
tion and  data  may  hereafter  be  furnished  from  every  section. 

It  has  been  said  that  her  climate  is  the  only  real  and  perma- 
nent good  thing  that  North  Carolina  possesses.  If  she  does 
possess  this  inestimable  blessing,  the  fact  should  be  distinctly 
published  to  the  world.  If  vegetable  life  is  known  to  find 
here  its  best  conditions ;  if  animal  life  is  not  drained  of  all  its 
vigor  by  sudden  and  extreme  changes  in  temperature ;  if  men 
can  live  long  and  comfortably,  these  powerful  incentives  to 
skillful  and  sustained  exertion  will  enable  our  people  to  supply 
to  themselves  those  further  advantages  which  they  are  not  to 
expect  from  nature.  A  suitable  climate  is  almost  the  only 
condition  required  by  the  grower  of  fruits,  and  by  the  manu- 
facturer in  wood,  cotton,  wool  and  iron.  Let  North  Carolinians 
but  display  at  home  that  energy,  patience,  perseverance,  hon- 
esty and  economy,  which  usually  mark  their  lives,  wherever 
they  are  found  in  other  States,  and  they  will  prove  that  a  coun- 
try which  has,  as  ancient  Greece  had,  an  excellent  climate  and 
but  little  else,  may  again  attract  the  attention  of  mankind,  as 
exhibiting  the  highest  style  of  man  together  with  all  the  forms 
of  power  which  wealth  and  prosperity  can  assume. 


MINERAL  RESOURCES  OF  NORTH  CAROLINA. 


BY   PROFESSOR   W.    C.    KERB,    STATE    GEOLOGIST. 


A  statement  of  some  general  principles,  and  a  few  observa- 
tions on  the  leading  geological  features  of  the  country,  will 
make  the  subject  more  intelligible.  The  position,  general  ar- 
rangement and  condition  of  the  rocks  of  a  region  have  always 
an  intimate  dependence  on  its  mountain  systems.  The  strike, 
or  direction  of  out-crop  of  the  strata  may  generally  be  pre- 
dicted as  soon  as  the  direction  of  the  dominant  mountain  range 
is  ascertained.  Thus  the  different  beds  of  rocks  on  the  eastern 
side  of  our  Continent  fall  into  parallelism  with  the  axis  of  up- 
heaval of  the  Apalachian  system.  The  general  direction  of 
the  Blue  Ridge,  therefore,  gives  us  approximately  the  geologi- 
cal meridian  to  which  all  the  rocks  of  North  Carolina  must  be 
referred.  This  direction  is  nearly  north-east  and  south-west. 
Every  one  has  noted  that  the  edges  of  the  out-cropping  strata, 
and,  in  general,  the  trap  dykes  and  mineral  veins,  take  this  di- 
rection predominately  in  onr  latitude.  The  beds  of  slate, 
limestone,  gneiss,  &c,  follow  each  other  in  regular  succession, 
all  tending  away  to  the  north-east.  So  that  passing  from  the 
sea  coast  to  the  mountains,  we  cross  successively  in  our  track 
the  upturned  edges  of  the  whole  series.  Thus  we  have  the 
clue  to  the  distribution  and  arrangement  of  the  rocks  in  mass. 

In  the  study  of  the  metaliferous  minerals  it  is  important  to 
bear  in  mind  two  leading  facts :  first,  that  they  are  found — 
especially  the  precious  metals — chiefly  on  the  flanks  of  the 
mountains  and  in  tracks  marked  by  disturbance  and  upheaval,, 
in  the  vicinity  of  trap  dykes  and  other  eruptive  rocks,  and  at 
the  intersections  of  these  with  slate ;  and  second,  that  their  oc* 


46 


currence  is  most  frequent  in  the  older  formations,  the  primaty 
and  lower  secondary. 

The  rocks  of  North  Carolina  belong  to  this  lowest  horizon, 
being  wholly  included,  with  the  unimportant  exception  of  the 
coalfields,  in  the  primary  group.  So  that  we  are  prepared  for 
the  statement  that  there  is  hardly  to  be  found  a  territory  of 
the  same  extent,  with  so  great  a  variety  of  valuable  minerals. 
In  the  treatment  of  this  subject,  it  will  be  sufficiently  precise 
for  our  purpose  to  divide  the  useful  minerals  into  two  classes, 
namely :  the  metaliferous  ores,  which  occur  mostly  in  veins,  as 
gold,  copper,  &c,  and  early  minerals  and  rocks,  which  are  found 
mostly  in  beds,  as  coal,  limestone,  &c. 

Under  the  first  division  occur  gold,  silver,  copper,  lead,  zinc, 
iron  and  tungsten;  and  here,  for  convenience,  may  be  added 
the  diamond ;  and  under  the  second  may  be  mentioned  as  oc- 
curring in  this  State  under  such  circumstances  as  render  them 
economically  valuable.  Coal,  marl,  limestone,  marble,  archi- 
tectural granite,  sandstone,  porphyry,  firestone,  buhrstone, 
grindstone  grit,  whetstone  slate,  roofing  slate,  alum  and  cope- 
ras  slates,  soapstone,  serpentine  agalmatolite,  fire-clay,  graphite, 
garnet,  barytes,  manganese,  oil  slates,  and  chromate  of  iron. 


COAL. 


The  second  division  being  most  important,  will  first  claim 
attention,  and  first  among  these  Coal. 

The  value  of  this  mineral  is  too  well  known  to  require  state- 
ment even.  The  development  of  all  arts  and  industries  is 
connected  with  its  abundance  and  cheapness.  It  is  found  in 
two  districts  in  North  Carolina,  known  as  the  Deep  river  and 
Dan  River  Coalfields.  In  both  the  coal  is  bituminous,  and 
occupies  a  narrow  tract  of  country  along  the  course  of  the  rivers 
from  which  they  respectively  take  their  names.  * 

These  beds,  therefore,  follow  in  their  outcrop  the  general 
direction  of  the  rocks  of  the  country.  The  Dan  river  bed 
is  distant  from  market,  and  has  been  little  explored.     There  is 


47 


an  outcrop  in  Rockingham  and  Stbkes  counties,  one  seam  be- 
ing four  feet  thick.  The  Deep  river  bed  is  better  known, 
and  probably  more  extensive.  It  is  described  in  detail  in  the 
Geological  Reports  of  Dr.  Emmons  for  1852  and  1856,  and 
also  by  Admiral  "Wilkes  in  his  reports  to  the  Secretary  of  the 
Navy  in  1859.  According  to  these  authorities,  this  coal  is  of 
the  best  quality,  well  adapted  to  the  manufacture  of  iron  and 
gas,  and  is  inexhaustible  in  quantity.  They  represent  it  as 
extending  over  an  area  of  more  than  forty  square  miles,  and 
containing  more  than  6,000,000  of  tons  to  each  square  mile. 
This  bed,  therefore,  1,000,000  tons  annually  for  several  hun- 
dred years. 


OIL. 


These  North  Carolina  coalfields  are  cotemporaneous  with 
those  of  Yirginia,  and  belong  to  a  range  more  recent  than  the 
Apalachiau  coal  formation,  which  ranges  from  Pennsylvania  to 
Alabama. 

The  bituminous  6lates  associated  with  the  coal  are  strongly 
impregnated  with  organic  products.  Dr.  Emmons  says : 
"  From  thirty  to  forty  gallons  of  crude  kerosene  oil  exists  in 
every  ton  of  these  slates.  They  are  from  fifty  to  seventy  feet 
thick,  and  it  is  proper  to  state,  that  it  is  a  better  oil  than  is 
furnished  from  coal."  The  coal  lies  in  a  trough-like  depres- 
sion, which  extends  from  Granville  county,  in  a  south-west 
direction,  to  South  Carolina.  This  tract  ia  occupied  in  its 
whole  length  by  a  heavy  bed  af  sandstones  of  the  same  age 
with  the  coal.  They  are  identical  in  appearance,  quality  and 
age  with  the  brown  stone  of  Connecticut  valley;  which  is  so 
extensively  used  as  a  building  stone  in  New  York  and  else- 
where. These  sandstones  are  also  extensively  quarried  for 
grindstones,  for  which  they  are  well  adapted. 


48 


FIRE-CLAY,  &C. 


Beds  of  fire-clay,  also,  are  interstratified  with  the  coal.  This 
mineral  is  found  in  various  parts  of  the  State,  conspicuously  in 
Gaston  county.  There  are  five  or  six  parallel  belts  of  saud- 
stone  and  quartzite,  belonging  to  the  older  rocks,  which  tra- 
verse the  State  in  the  prevailing  direction,  and  in  which  are 
found  various  grades  of  building  stones,  fire  stones,  and  grind- 
stones. According  to  Dr.  Emmons,  one  of  these  passes  east 
of  Raleigh,  another  a  few  miles  to  the  westward,  and  a  third 
crosses  the  counties  of  Montgomery,  Randolph  and  Orange. 

The  well  known  fire  stones  of  Gaston,  Lincoln  aud  Catawba, 
occur  in  the  fourth  belt,  which  crops  out  along  the  line  of 
upheaval  of  King's  mountain,  Crowder's  mountain  and  Little 
mountain.  This  rock  in  places  assumes  the  character  of  white 
granular  quartz,  (saccharoidal  quartz  of  the  mineralogist)  and 
attains  sufficient  purity  to  be  used  in  the  manufacture  of  glass. 
Linville  mountain,  in  McDowell  county,  at  the  eastern  base  of 
the  Blue  Ridge,  is  chiefly  made  up  of  the  same  rock.  Here  is 
found  the  flexible  sandstone  (Itacolumite  of  the  mineralogist) 
n  which  the  diamond  occurs  in  other  parts  of  the  world. 

LIMESTONE. 

In  addition  to  the  four  beds  of  this  rock  in  the  western 
counties,  there  are  two  beds  east  of  the  Blue  Ridge ;  one  is  in 
McDowell  county,  along  the  North  Fork,  the  other  crosses  th& 
State  from  King's  mouutain  along  through  Gaston,  Lincoln 
and  Catawba  to  Stokes.  There  is  also  a  small  bed  of  marly 
limestone  eight  or  ten  miles  in  length  in  the  North-western 
part  of  Wake  county. 

PORCELAIN   CLAY,    AC. 

Agalmatelite  constitutes  another  member  of  the  sandstone* 
group  in  at  least  two  of  the  zones,  being  found  in  this  connect 


49 

tion  in  Montgomery  and  Chatham,  as  well  as  on  thelNTantahala 
river,  and  across  Cherokee  county.  This  rock  is  miscalled 
soapstone,  which  it  resembles  in  some  of  its  properties  and 
uses. 

It  is  developed  here  on  a  large  scale,  and  in  no  part  of  the 
world  is  found  in  greater  purity  or  extent.  Its  uses  in  the  arts 
are  manifold,  being  substituted  for  graphite  in  lubrication  and 
for  soapstone  in  furnaces,  prepared  as  a  cosmetic  and  a  pig- 
ment, and  manufactured  into  soap,  into  ornaments,  and  the 
finer  kinds  of  porcelain  ware.  It  has  been  exported  for  this 
latter  purpose  in  large  quantities  to  JSTew  York  and  to  Ger- 
many. 

GRAPHITE. 

Here,  also,  belong  the  famous  graphite,  or  plumbago  beds  of 
Wake  county,  being  found  immediately  under  the  sandstone, 
or  quartzite.  It  occurs,  likewise,  in  the  same"  connection,  in 
the  Catawba  belt  (in  Gaston,  Lincoln  and  Catawba)  and  scat- 
tered through  several  counties  westward.  The  uses  of  this 
mineral  are  well  known  and  important,  the  principal  of  which 
are  for  the  so-called  lead  pencils,  for  crucibles,  for  paints,  for 
lubrication  and  for  electrotyping,  &c.  The  Wake  county 
mines  have  been  worked  to  a  considerable  extent,  and  will,  no 
doubt,  be  re-opened.  Dr.  Emmons  and  Prof.  Olmsted  pro- 
nounce these  the  most  important  beds  of  this  mineral  known. 

The  quartzite  in  Montgomery  county  takes  the  form  of  a 
buhrstone,  which  is  supposed  to  be  valuable  for  the  manufac- 
ture of  millstones.  This  mineral  is  also  found  near  Webster 
in  Jackson  county,  and  on  JSTantahala  river,  in  Macon. 

SOAPSTONE,    WHETESTONES,    GRINDSTONES,    &C. 

Soapstone  and   serpentine   of  good   quality   are   found  in 
various  parts  of  the  State,  for    example,   in  Wake,  Moore, 
Orange,  Eandolph,  Mecklenburg  and  Caldwell,  and  west  of  the 
4 


50 


Blue  Ridge  there  is  a  remarkable  belt  of  serpentine  and 
chlorite  slates  traversing  the  State  from  Clay  to  Mitchell 
which  carries  a  great  variety  of  minerals  interesting  to  the 
mineralogist,  and  one  at  least  that  might  become  valuable 
economically,  viz :  The  slate  formation,  which  occupies  a  tract 
of  the  State,  not  less  than  forty  miles  in  width,  west  of  the 
coal  rocks  of  Deep  river,  extends  in  a  north-east  direction, 
from  Anson  and  Union  counties,  on  the  southern  border,  to 
the  Virginia  line.  These  slates  constitute  a  notable  feature  in 
the  geology  of  the  State,  and,  in  addition  to  the  interest  which 
attaches  to  the  numerous  mines  along  its  north  western  border, 
they  contain  extensive  beds  ^of  roofing  slates  and  turkey 
hones,  (noraculite.)  Scythe  stones  are  also  found  on  the  Nan- 
tahala  of  good  quality^  and  in  great  abundance. 

The  Linville  slates  furnish  abundant  materials  for  grind- 
stones and  whetstones  in  the  Linville  mountains,  and  for 
whetstones  of  very  good  quality  in  Adam's  Knob  on  John's 
river.  On  Laurel  river,  in  Madison,  is  a  peculiar  cherty 
splintered,  whitish  quartz  rock,  which  Mr.  George  Gehagan 
has  manufactured  into  millstones,  which  are  described  as  nearly 
equal  in  performance  to  the  French  buhrstone.  One  of  the 
best  millstone  grits  in  the  country  is  found  on  McLennon's 
creek,  in  Moore  county. 

ALUM   AND    COPPEKAS. 

Alum  and  copperas  slates  abound  in  many  parts  of  the  State, 
and  have  been  extensively  brought  into  requisition  during  the 
stress  of  the  late  war.  The  counties  of  Cleaveland  and  Ruther- 
ford alone  contain  not  less  than  100  square  miles  of  these  rocks, 
and  could  easily  supply  the  continent  with  copperas.  This  mate- 
rial is  derived,  by  the  process  of  weathering,  from  the  iron 
pyrites  which  is  disseminated  in  great  abundance,  and  in  a 
state  of  extreme  comminution,  through  the  slates,  many  of 
which  being  foldsphatic  yield  also  alum. 


51 

MINERAL     SPRINGS. 

The  same  cause,  viz.,  the  abundance  and  wide  diffusion  of 
iron  pyrites,  give  rise  to  so  many  sulphur,  chalybeate  and  alum 
springs  in  this  Piedmont  country.  They  abound  throughout 
the  region,  but  the  most  noted  are  the  Wilson's  Springe 
(White  and  Red  Sulphur  and  Chalybeate)  near  Shelby,  in 
Cleaveland  county;  McBrier's  and  Patheson's  in  the  same 
county,  and  the  Catawba  White  Sulphur  and  Chalybeate,  in 
the  northern  part  of  the  county  of  the  same  name,  and  Pied- 
mont Springs  in  Burke,  near  Table  Hock.  All  these  are  wa- 
tering places  of  some  celebrity.  Wilson's  and  the  Catawba 
have  been  recently  improved  and  furnished  in  good  style. 
They  have  the  advantage  of  being  located  in  a  very  salubrious 
climate,  in  view  of  the  mountains,  and  easily  accessible  from 
the  railroads. 

Beyond  the  Blue  Ridge  also  mineral  springs  abound.  The 
most  notable  are  the  celebrated  Warm  Springs  in  Madison 
county,  and  the  White  Sulphur  near  Asheville,  and  the  Million 
Springs  at  the  foot  of  Craggy  Mountain,  Buncombe  county ; 
and  the  White  Sulphur  near  Waynesville,  Haywood  county  ; 
and  Chalybeate,  on  the  Nantahala,  in  Macon  county. 

MICA. 

Large  crystals  of  mica  are  found  in  many  parts  of  Yancey, 
Mitchell,  Macon,  Jackson  and  Haywood.  The  largest  I  have 
seen,  however,  were  obtained  in  Cleaveland,  near  Shelby. 
When  clear  and  free  from  flaws,  plates  four  inches  by  six  are 
worth  about  one  dollar  and  a  half  per  pound. 

BARYTES    AND    MANGANESE. 

Barytes  is  found  in  Orange,  in  the  mines  of  Cabarrus  and 
Mecklenburg,  also  in  Gaston  and  Madison  counties,  and  man- 
ganese in  Cabarrus  and  Gaston  as  well  as  in  Lincoln,  Catawba 
and  Chatham. 


52 


MAKL. 


This  valuable  materially  is  liberally  scattered  over  most  of 
the  seacoast  section  of  the  State,  and  is  found  in  every  degree 
of  purity  and  consolidation,  from  a  mere  aggregation  of  loose 
shells  to  the  most  compact  limestone,  suitable  for  building  or 
for  burning  into  lime.  The  famous  bath  stone  of  London  is 
matched  by  some  of  these  beds.  The  marl  is  generally  found 
near  the  surface  and  easily  accessible.  The  importance  of 
these  accumulations  of  mineral  manure  to  the  agriculture  of 
the  State  is  not  fully  appreciated.  Our  farmers  are  only  be- 
ginning to  understand  the  essential  part  which  lime  plays  in 
the  economy  of  vegetable  growth,  and  its  important  relations 
to  exhausted  soils. 

We  pass  to  the  other  divisions  of  minerals,  the  metaliferous 
ores. 

To  the  impracticed  eye  nothing  presents  a  picture  of  more 
hopeless  disorder  and  chaos  than  the  rocks,  particularly  in  a 
region  of  great  disturbance,  as  in  a  mountainous  country. 
Here  seems  truly  "a  land  of  darkness  without  any  order,  and 
where  the  light  is  as  darkness."  And  yet,  at  the  touch  of 
science  order  arises  out  of  this  confusien,  and  light  spreads 
over  this  darkness.  In  a  region  of  the  wildest  riot  of  disorder, 
dislocation,  disturbance  and  inversion,  under  the  patient  and 
inevitable  inductions  of  geology,  the  upheaved,  overturned  and 
distorted  strata  fall  into  rank  and  regularity  along  certain  axes 
and  group  themselves  orderly  about  certain  centres.  As  the 
sandstones,  limestones,  &c,  of  the  previous  division  were 
found  to  acknowledge  certain  relationship  inter  se,  and  toward 
a  controlling  geological  meridian,  so  it  will  appear  that  the 
metaliferous  ores  are  not  scattered  at  random  and  as  if  by 
chance,  (even  within  the  limitations  already  stated  of  a  dis- 
turbed area,  and  a  low  geological  horizon)  but  have  a  subordi- 
nate grouping  and  a  palpable  arrangement. 


53 


IRON. 


And  first,  of  iron,  king  of  metals ;  so  because  it  constitutes 
the  very  frame-work,  as  it  were,  of  our  material  civilization, 
without  which  the  whole  fabric  would  vanish  like  the  fabled 
ship  on  approaching  the  magnetic  mountain.  North  Carolina 
is  peculiarly  fortunate  in  the  possession  of  an  abundance  of 
iron  ore,  and  so  widely  distributed  and  in  so  immediate  juxta- 
position with  the  other  materials  and  means  for  smelting  it, 
that  each  section,  except  the  seaboard  counties,  can  produce  its 
own  supply.  These  ores  occupy  chiefly  five  or  six  narrow 
tracts,  or  districts,  which  have  an  obvious  relation  to  the  min- 
eral belts  already  pointed  out. 

This  relation  is  most  obvious  and  most  immediate  in  the 
trans-Catawba  tract,  the  ore  being  fcund  in  heavy  veins  along 
the  out  crop  of  the  sandstone  from  King's  mountain  through 
Gaston,  Lincoln  and  Catawba,  to  Stokes  and  Surry.  A  second 
belt  extends  through  Montgomery,  Randolph  and  Guilford. 
A  third  has  its  largest  development  in  Chatham,  in  the  neigh- 
borhood of  the  coal,  at  Buckhorn,  Lockville,  Ore  Hill,  Egypt, 
&c,  but  makes  its  appearance  also  in  Johnston.  These  ores 
are  specular,  magnetic  and  hematite. 

In  the  coal-beds  themselves,  exists  an  important  deposit  of 
iron  ore  interstratified  with  the  coal.  "West  of  the  Blue  Ridge 
is  one  of  the  most  valuable  accumulations  of  iron  ore  to  be 
found  in  the  country.  It  has  been  long  famous  for  the  fine 
quality  of  the  metal  which  it  yields.  The  ore  lies  at  the  base 
of  the  Yellow  mountain,  in  Mitchell  county,  and  is  found  at 
several  points  in  a  south-east  direction  in  Madison  and  Hay- 
wood. These  beds  are  magnetic,  and  are  well  adapted  to  the 
manufacture  of  steel. 

Another  bed  accompanies  the  limestone  of  McDowell  and 
Transylvania ;  and  one  of  the  most  important  and  extensive 
deposits  in  the  country  crosses  the  entire  breadth  of  Cherokee. 
It  belongs  commonly  to  the  variety  of  specular  or  hematite  ore. 
The  completion  of  the  Western  Railroad  will  bring  these  im- 


54 


mense  deposits  into  speedy  requisition,  and  will  probably  ren- 
der Cherokee  the  leading  iron  county  of  the  State. 

The  manufacture  of  iron  had  attained  to  considerable  impor- 
tance in  the  State  previously  to  the  late  war,  during  which,  of 
course,  this  industry  received  a  great  impetus.  And  when  our 
system  of  internal  improvements  shall  have  been  completed, 
this  will  doubtless  become  one  of  the  most  important  manu- 
factures in  the  State. 

GOLD. 

Gold  mining  commenced  in  JSTorth  Carolina  about  fifty  years 
ago.  The  first  impulse  was  given  to  the  business  by  the  acci- 
dental discovery  of  some  large  nuggets  in  Cabarrus  and  Anson 
counties.  Previously  to  the  year  1820  not  more  than  $50,000 
had  been  obtained.  In  1863  the  aggregate  yield  was  not  less 
than  $10^000,900,  which  would  make  an  average  annual  yield 
of  $250,000.  Here,  as  elsewhere,  the  first  mining  was  confined 
to  "  surface  diggings."  And  in  1824,  Prof.  Olmstead,  of  the 
University,  then  State  Geologist,  expressed  doubts  about  the 
existence  of  gold  veins  in  that  region. 

In  California,  Australia,  along  the  Andes  and  the  Ural,  every- 
where, in  ancient  and  modern  times,  these  superficial  deposits 
have  been  the  chief  source  of  the  precious  metal,  and  have 
been  generally  more  remunerative  than  vein-mines.  And  it  is 
in  this  datritus  of  sand,  gravel  and  clay,  that  nearly  all  the 
large  masses,  or  nuggets,  of  gold  have  been  found. 

In  North  Carolina,  however,  vein-mining  has  obtained  great 
prominence,  and  the  larger  part  of  the  whole  product  in  this 
State  has  been  derived  from  this  source.  Some  single  mines 
in  the  gold  region  have  yielded  from  one  to  two  millions.  And 
if  these  mines  have  not  been  uniformly  profitable,  it  is  because 
they  have  been  generally  wrought  with  little  science  or  econ- 
omy. Oreman,  in  his  work  on  Metallurgy,  has  recorded  his 
conviction  that  these  mines,  under  jyrojoer  management,  would 
he  more  profitable  than  those  of  California. 


55 

The  vein  gold  of  this  State  is  usually  found  in  a  gangue  of 
quartz,  or  disseminated  in  a  slaty  veinstone,  and  is  commonly 
associated  with  iron  and  copper  pyrites.  This  association 
almost  universally  prevails  below  the  water-level.  These 
mines,  therefore,  are  of  the  same  character  as  those  of  Cali- 
fornia and  Colorado,  and  the  new  methods  which  have  been 
devised  during  the  last  few  years  to  meet  the  difficulties  of 
working  this  class  of  ores  will  doubtless  be  found  applicable 
here. 

The  gold  district  proper  of  North  Carolina  extends,  inclusively, 
from  Gnilford,  Eandolph  and  Moore  counties,  west  and  south- 
west to  the  Blue  Ridge,  and  comprises  all  the  interjacent  coun- 
ties, some  twenty  in  number.  Outside  of  this  region  there  are 
but  three  gold  fields  of  any  note,  viz :  in  Cherokee,  Jackson 
and  Nash. 

The  Reed  mine  in  Cabarrus  county  has  yielded  more  than  a 
dozen  nuggets,  of  various  weights,  from  twenty-eight  pounds 
(the  largest  ever  found  before  the  discovery  of  California)  to 
two  or  three  pounds,  making  an  aggregate  of  over  120  pounds. 
These  nuggets  are  found  in  the  detrital  accumulations  of 
denuded  veins.  The  most  extensive  surface  digging,  or  placer 
mines,  are  found  in  the  South  mountains,  occupying  nearly  200 
square  miles  in  Burke  and  the  neighboring  counties.  More 
than  a  million  of  dollars  have  been  obtained  from  this  deposit, 
and  it  is  by  no  means  exhausted. 

There  are  also  placer  diggings  of  considerable  extent  in  the 
counties  of  Caldwell,  Polk  and  Nash. 

SILVER. 

It  will  be  observed  that  the  richest  gold  mines  lie  along  and 
near  the  line  of  contact  of  the  slates  and  granite.  And  it  is 
also  along  this  line  that  the  principal  silver  mines  of  this  State 
are  found.  The  most  noted  of  these  is  at  Silver  Hill,  in  David- 
son county.  The  combination  of  metals  here  is  quite  complex, 
including  with  the  silver,  gold,  lead,  copper  and  zinc.     A  chain 


56 


of  silver  mines  runs  south-west  along  the  western  border  of 
the  slates,  including  the  Conrad,  the  McMakin,  and  the 
Stewart  mines.  During  the  war,  the  first  named  of  these 
mines  yielded  a  considerable  quantity  of  lead.  It  had  been 
previously  worked  chiefly  for  silver  and  gold.  The  same  asso- 
ciation of  metals  occurs  in  Cherokee. 

Two  or  three  silver  mines  have  also  been  discovered  recent- 
ly in  Watauga  county,  near  the  Tennessee  line. 

LEAD   AND    ZINC. 

Lead  has  not  been  found  in  quantities  sufficient  to  justify 
operation  elsewhere  in  the  State,  although  its  existence  has 
been  ascertained  in  several  localities  in  the  mountain  region, 
as  in  McDowell  and  Cherokee.  Both  the  silver  and  the  lead 
of  North  Carolina  are  found  mostly  in  combination  with  sul- 
phur in  galena. 

Zinc  is  not  known  to  occur  in  the  State,  except  in  the  above- 
named  association  and  localities. 

The  new  process  of  manufacturing  zinc  paint  has  rendered 
all  these  zinc-lead  mines  immensely  valuable. 

COPPEK. 

Copper  has  long  been  known  as  an  accompaniment  of  gold 
in  most  of  the  mines  of  that  metal,  especially  in  those  which 
occur  within  the  belt  of  granite  bordering  the  slates  on  the 
west.  Many  of  these,  which  were  originally  operated  as  gold 
mines,  were  abandoned  on  account  of  the  increase  of  copper 
pyrites  with  the  depth ;  and  it  is  only  within  a  few  years  that 
several  of  them  have  been  re-opened  as  copper  mines. 

The  mines  of  this  metal  in  the  gold  district,  above  indicated, 
are  found  east  of  the  Catawba  river,  and  the  most  important 
of  these  are  in  the  Southern  portion  of  Chatham,  in  Guilford, 
Davidson,  Rowan,  Cabarrus  and  Mecklenburg,  many  of  which 
have  been  recently  re-opened.     There   are  also  several  other 


57 

mines  outside  of  this  district,  the'  principal  of  which  is  the 
Gillis  mine,  in  Person  county. 

Beyond  the  Blue  Eidge  are  two  well  defined  copper  districts, 
in  which  occur  many  large  veins,  which  have  only  been  opened 
at  a  few  points.  One  of  these  lies  on  the  headwaters  of  the 
Tuckaseegee,  in  Jackson,  extending  occasionally  across  the 
mountain  chains  into  the  neighboring  counties  of  Macon  and 
Haywood.  The  most  noted  mines  in  this  region  are  the  Cul- 
lowhee,  Waryhut  and  Savannah.  The  other  copper  belt  is  in 
Ashe  and  Alleghany  counties.  The  important  mines  here 
are  the  Elk  Knob,  Ore  Knob,  Peach  Bottom  and  Gap  Creek. 
In  both  these  trans-montane  districts  the  veins  are  developed 
on  a  very  large  scale.  They  differ  from  all  other  copper  mines 
in  the  State  (and  so  far  as  I  know  in  the  country)  in  being 
found  in  hornblende  state. 

CHROMIC    IRON. 

As  has  been  stated,  this  mineral  accompanies  the  serpentine 
in  the  most  of  its  outcrops  in  the  transmontane  plateau,  e.  g. 
in  Yancy,  Mitchell  and  Watauga,  as  well  as  in  Jackson.  It 
exists  in  the  form  of  nodules  and  veins.  This  mineral  yields 
a  very  large  number  of  valuable  paints. 

TUNGSTEN. 

Tungsten,  a  metal  which  was  long  merely  a  chemical  curi- 
osity, but  has  recently  assumed  a  high  value,  particularly  on 
account  of  its  relation  to  the  manufacture  of  steel,  occurs  in 
Cabarrus. 

DIAMONDS. 

Several  valuable  diamonds  have  been  found  in  the  trans. 
Catawba  country,  in  Lincoln  and  Rutherford  counties. 

From  this  very  rapid  survey  of  the  minerals  of  North  Caro- 


58 


]ina,  several  facts  worthy  of  note  are  evident;  first,  that 
though  widely  distributed,  they  are  not  scattered  at  random, 
but  follow  a  certain  order  of  grouping  and  association,  so  that 
the  probability  of  the  occurrence  of  a  given  mineral  in  any 
particular  locality  can  be  approximately  ascertained  before  ex- 
amination. 


RAILROADS. 

THE   NCKTH    CAROLINA   EAILEOAD. 

The  North  Carolina  Railroad,  from  Goldsboro'  to  Charlotte, 
223  miles,  runs  through  the  entire  section  described  as  the  cen- 
tral division,  passing  by  Raleigh,  Greensboro,'  Lexington  and 
Salisbury.  It  is  nearly  a  semi-circle  and  has  but  little  land  on 
the  line  which  cannot  be  cultivated.  At  Goldsboro'  connec- 
tion is  made  with  Wilmington  &  Weldon  Railroad  and  Atlan- 
tic &  North  Carolina  Railroad ;  at  Raleigh  with  Raleigh  & 
Gaston  Railroad  and  Raleigh  &  Augusta  Air-Line ;  at  Greens- 
boro' with  Richmond  &  Danville  Railroad  and  branch  road  to 
Salem ;  at  Salisbury  with  Western  North  Carolina  Railroad ; 
at  Charlotte  with  Charlotte,  Columbia  &  Augusta  Railroad, 
Atlantic,  Tennesse  &  Ohio  Railroad  aud  Atlanta  Air-Line. 
This  road  is  now  controlled  by  the  Richmond  &  Danville 
Railroad,  Col.  A.  S.  Buford,  office  at  Richmond,  Ya. 

THE   EALEIGH    &   GASTON    KAILEOAD. 

The  Raleigh  &  Gaston  Railroad,  from  Raleigh  to  Weldon,  is 
9S  miles  long,  connecting  at  Weldon  with  the  Wilmington 
Railroad,  Seaboard  &  Roanoke  Railroad  and  Petersburg  & 
Richmond  Railroad,  and  at  Raleigh  with  the  Raleigh  &  Au- 
gusta Air-Line  and  North  Carolina  Railroads.  The  trip  over 
this  route  is  very  pleasant  and  interesting,  both  in  scenery  and 
incidents.  On  the  line  of  this  road  you  find  large  cultivated 
fields  and  extensive  forests,  new  villas  attracting  and  reminding 
one  of  the  country  villas  of  the  Eastern  States.  This  is  some- 
what explained  b}7  the  tide  of  immigration  which  has  poured  into 
this  particular  section  lately.  On  this  route  you  meet  the  old- 
time  farmer.  You  can  tell  him  by  his  rosy  complexion,  keen 
eye,  flowing  black  beard  and  the  don't  care  kind  of  dress  he 


60 


wears.  Large  vineyards  and  orchards  are  being  planted  in  this 
section,  and  already  the  productions  of  Henderson  and  Ridge- 
way,  (depots  of  the  road,)  are  known  and  sought  after  in 
northern  markets.  The  offices  of  this  road  are  at  Raleigh,  Dr. 
W.  J.  Hawkins  President,  and  A.  B.  Andrews  Superintendent. 

THE    RALEIGH  AND    SEABOARD    RAILROAD    COMPANY. 

This  company  lias  been  incorporated  by  the  Legislature  of 
North  Carolina.  This  proposed  railway  will  commence  in 
Martin  county,  1ST.  C,  either  at  Williamston  or  Jamesville, 
and  run  to  Tarboro' ;  thence  to  Raleigh,  the  Capital  of  N.  C, 
by  the  most  direct  and  practical  route.  The  section  of  country 
through  which  this  road  will  pass  is  very  fertile,  producing 
corn  and  cotton  in  great  abundance. 

"We  understand  the  enterprise  will  be  vigorously  pushed 
forward.  This  is  another  opening  for  immigrants  in  the  State 
of  North  Carolina. 

THE   CAROLINA    CENTRAL   RAILROAD. 

The  Carolina  Central  Railroad,  formerly  the  Wilmington, 
Charlotte  and  Rutherford  Railroad,  as  originally  chartered, 
was  to  connect  the  two  points,  Wilmington  and  Rutherford — 
both  within  the  State  of  North  Carolina — extending  a  distance 
of  two  hundred  and  seventy-two  miles.  Under  the  present 
charter,  it  has  been  deemed  best  to  stop  the  line  for  the  present 
at  Shelby,  in  the  county  of  Cleaveland,  two  hundred  and 
forty-two  miles  from  Wilmington.  For  a  western  extension 
it  has  been  thought  best  to  connect  this  railway  line  with  that 
of  the  Western  North  Carolina  Railroad  at  or  near  Hickory 
Station,  by  a  short  line  from  Lincolnton.  This  connection 
made,  and  the  two  gaps  in  that  railroad  between  Old  Fort  and 
the  Warm  Springs  filled  up,  we  will  have  a  continuous  line 
from  Wilmington  via  Asheville  to  Morristown,  where  connec- 
tions exist  with  the  railways  to  Chattanooga,  Memphis,  Lit- 


188  miles, 

220 

(C 

238 

H 

318 

(I 

400 

(C 

440 

ti 

580 

a 

61 


tie  Rock  and  the  Pacific  Railroad,  Nashville,  Louisville  and 
Cincinnati;  and  by  the  completion  of  the  Cumberland  Gap 
route  (about  forty  miles  more),  we  have  a  short  line  to  Cincin- 
nati, Chicago  and  all  the  North-west. 
The  distances  are  as  follows : 

From  "Wilmington  to  Charlotte, 

"  "  "  Lincolnton, 

"  "  "  Hickory  Tavern, 

"  "  "  Asheville, 

"  "  "  Morristown, 

"  "  "  Cumberland  Gap, 

"  "  "  Cincinnati, 

Or  about  the  same  distance  that  it  is  from  Baltimore  to  Cin- 
cinnati. It  is  about  814  miles  from  Wilmington  to  Memphis 
via  Chattanooga. 

By  the  extension  to  and  beyond  Asheville,  by  way  of  the 
Western  N.  C.  Railroad,  as  we  have  before  stated,  we  bring 
the  western  markets  at  Chattanooga,  Memphis,  Little  Rock  and 
the  Pacific  line,  Nashville,  Louisville,  Cincinnati  and  the  North- 
west, within  easy  reach  of  the  Atlantic  coast. 

The  Carolina  Central  Railway  runs  through  neither  the  frigid 
cold  of  the  North  nor  the  torrid  heat  of  the  South,  which  makes 
its  summers  pleasant  and  healthful,  and  its  winters  mild  and 
salubrious. 

The  line  is  the  most  northerly  line  of  railway  penetrating 
the  productive  valley  of  the  Mississippi,  south  of  the  "  snow 
and  frost  belt," — avoiding  their  blockades  and  the  damaging 
effects  they  produce,  causing  no  disturbance  of  the  roadbed 
by  deep  freezing  nor  breakage  of  iron  rails  and  iron  machinery, 
which  materially  reduces  the  cost  of  operating  and  delays  in 
transportation. 

Thus  its  admirable  location  makes  the  line  a  favorite  outlet, 
as  we  have  stated  before,  for  the  [diversified  products  of  the 
broad  and  fertile  region  it  traverses.     Although  the  only  pro- 


62 


ducts  now  sought  for  by  the  shipping  interests  at  this  port  are 
naval  stores,  lumber  and  cotton,  there  is  no  time  but  may  be 
seen  flying  upon  the  shipping  at  our  wharves,  the  flags  of 
most  of  the  northern  nations  of  Europe. 

"When  the  bacon,  flour  and  other  products  of  the  great  "West 
are  added,  "Wilmington  will  become  one  of  the  most  impor- 
tant ports  on  our  eastern  coast. 

THE   WESTERN    NORTH   CAROLINA   RAILROAD. 

The  "Western  North  Carolina  Railroad,  from  Salisbury  on 
North  Carolina  Railroad,  extends  to  Old  Fort.  It  is  proposed 
to  extend  this  road  to  Tennessee  and  consolidate  it  with  the 
North  Carolina  Railroad  and  Atlantic  &  North  Carolina  Rail- 
road, thus  having  a  grand  connection  from  the  mountains  to 
the  seacoast.  "W.  A.  Smith  is  the  receiver  of  this  road.  lie 
is  about  as  well  known  as  any  man  in  the  State. 

This  route  is  through  a  beautiful  mountain  section  of  North 
Carolina.  Railroad  communication  will  open  up  a  vast  new 
country  filled  with  iron,  &c. 

THE  WILMINGTON  AND  WELDON  RAILROAD. 

The  "Wilmington  and  "Weldon  Railroad,  from  "Wilmington  to 
"Weldon,  is  170  miles  l©ng.  The  country  through  which  this 
road  passes  is  a  level  pine  region.  It  has  been  described  as  a 
country  of  "  interminable  pine  forests,  dotted  with  swamps, 
and  traversed  by  numerous  streams,  all  running  coastward." 
On  this  road  you  cross  the  Neuse  river  at  Goldsboro,  the  Tar 
river  at  Rocky  Mount,  and  the  Roanoke  at  "Weldon.  It  is  a 
great  mistake  that  people  make  in  supposing  that  there  is  little 
business  done  on  this  line,  except  the  gathering  of  turpentine 
and  manufacturing  tar.  This  road  passes  through  the  best 
cotton  section  of  the  State.  On  all  sides  of  the  road  for  miles 
distant  one  cannot  but  observe  signs  of  great  prosperity. 
Comfortable  dwelling-houses,  and  even  some  very  handsome 


63 


villas  meet  the  eye.     A  few  manufactories  are  carried  on  ;  a 
large  cotton  factory  at  Rocky  Mount. 

Immigrants  are  being  located  on  the  road,  one  colony  be- 
ing at  Camera,  and  we  understand  from  Col.  Brink,  who  has 
located  the  colony,  that  all  are  well  pleased.  There  are  any 
amount  of  good  lands  uncleared  on  this  route.  This  road 
connects  at  Weldon  with  the  northern  bound  trains  on  the 
Seaboard  &  Roauoke  Railroad  and  Richmond  &  Petersburg 
Railroad,  and  at  Wilmington  with  Southern  bound  trains  on 
the  "Wilmington,  Columbia  &  Augusta  Railroad.  This  line  is 
known  as  the  Great  Atlantic  Coast  Line.  Offices  at  "Wil- 
mington, R.  R.  Bridgers,  President,  and  A.  Pope,  General 
Agent. 

THE   WESTERN   RAILROAD. 

The  "Western  Railroad,  from  Fayetteville,  on  the  Cape  Fear 
river,  to  Egypt,  is  42  miles.  This  road  is  generally  spoken  of 
as  the  Coal  Fields  Railroad,  as  it  extends  to  the  coal  mines  in 
Chatham  county.  It  is  proposed  to  extend  it  to  some  point  on 
the  North  Carolina  Railroad.  The  country  through  which  it 
passes  is  greatly  productive,  abounding  in  coal  beds  and  iron 
mines.  At  Sanford  connection  is  made  with  the  Raleigh,  Co- 
lumbia &  Augusta  Air  Line  Railroad.  Connectionis  made  at 
Fayetteville  with  the  Cape  Fear  river  steamers. 

Offices  at  Fayetteville,  N.  C.  Jones,  President,  J.  H.  Rose, 
Secretary. 

THE  ATLANTIC,  TENNESSEE  AND  OHIO  RAILROAD. 

The  Atlantic^Tennessee^and  Ohio  Railroad,  from  Charlotte, 
completed  to  Statesville,  N.  C,  connects  at  Charlotte  with  the 
North  Carolina  Railroad,  Atlanta  Air  Line,  Charlotte,  Co- 
lumbia &  Augusta  Railroad,  Carolina  Central  Railroad. 
Offices  at  Charlotte,  R.  D.  Springs,  receiver. 

On  the  line  of  this  road  is  located  Davidson  College,  a  Pres- 
byterian school  of  high  standing  at  home  and  having  a  good 
name  abroad. 


STATISTICS  OF  NOETH  CAEOLINA. 


White  population,  1870,  678,470 ;  colored  population,  391,- 
650};  civilized  Indians,  1,241.  Aggregate  population,  1,071,- 
361. 

"White  population,  1860,  629,942;  colored  population,  361,* 
522;  civilized  Indians,  1,15S.  Aggregate  population,  992,- 
622. 

White  population,  1790, 288,204 ;  slave  population,  100,572 ; 
free  colored,  4,975. 

Public  schools,  1,435  ;  teachers,  male,  1,125 ;  teachers,  fe- 
male, 393  ;  pupils,  male,  21,279  ;  pupils,  female,  20,633  ;  in- 
come, $205,131. 

Private  schools,  classical,  &c,  134;  teachers,  male,  202; 
teachers,  female,  140 ;  pupils,  male,  3,659  ;  pupils,  female, 
3,053 ;  income,  $234,320. 

Private  schools,  other  than  classical,  &c,  592 ;  teachers,  male, 
412 ;  teachers,  female,  420 ;  pupils,  male,  7,726 ;  pupils,  fe- 
male, 8,608 ;  income,  $196,441. 

Libraries,  1,746  ;  volumes,  541,915. 

Newspapers,  64;  copies  annually  issued,  6,684,950;  circula- 
tion, 64,820. 

Churches  of  all  denominations — organizations,  2,683 ;  edi- 
fices, 2,497  ;  sittings,  718,310  ;  value  of  property,  $2,487,877. 

Baptist  churches,  938 ;  property,  $583,285. 

Christian  churches,  60  ;  property,  $24,377. 

Congregational  church,  1 ;  property,  $1,500. 

Episcopal,  (protestant,)  68  ;  property,  $403,450. 

Friends,  27 ;  property,  $21,485. 

Lutheran,  70  ;  property,  $96,550. 

Methodist,  1,078 ;  property,  $775,805. 

Presbyterian,  201 ;  property,  $395,475. 


Reformed  church,  29 ;  property,  $23,400. 

Roman  Catholic,  9  ;  property,  $64,100. 

Universalist,  2  ;  property,  $700. 

North  Carolina  has  50,704  square  miles ;  there  are  21  1-13 
persons  to  a  square  mile ;  there  are  205,970  families  in  the 
State,  and  5  1-20  persons  to  a  family  ;  there  are  202,504  dwel- 
lings, and  5  1-29  persons  to  a  dwelling. 

The  sex  of  the  aggregate  population,  male,  518,704 ;  female, 
552,657. 

Population  of  ten  years  and  over,  male,  365,528 ;  female, 
404,101;  total,  769,629.  Occupation  :  engaged  in  agriculture, 
269,238 ;  professional  and  personal  services,  51,290  ;  in  trade 
or  transportation,  10,179  ;  in  manufactures  and  mechanical  and 
mining  institutions,  20,592 ;  total,  351,299. 

There  are  835  blind  persons  in  the  State,  540  white,  266 
colored,  and  26  mulatto. 

There  are  619  deaf  and  dumb  persons  in  the  State,  442 
white,  142  black,  26  mulatto. 

There  are  779  insane  persons  in  the  State,  670  white,  97 
black,  12  mulatto. 

There  are  976  idiots  in  the  State,  665  white,  279  black,  32 
mulatto. 

Assessed  valuation  of  property,  North  Carolina,  total  amount, 
$130,378,628  ;  real  estate,  $83,332,012  ;  personal  estate,  $47,- 
056,610;  the  valuation  of  real  and  personal  estate,  $250,757,- 
244. 

TAXATION. 

Total  amount,  $2,352,809;  State,  $1,800,254;  county, 
$923,604 ;  town,  city,  &c,  $228,351.     Total,  $2,352,809. 

There  are  19,835,410  acres  of  land  in  farms,  of  which 
5,258,742  acres  are  improved  and  14,576,668  are  unimproved. 
Per  centage  of  unimproved  lands  in  farms  to  total  land  in 
farms  is  73.5,  and  the  averagesize  of  farms  is  212  acres ;  the 
valuation  of  farm  products,  including  improvement  and  ad. 
5 


G6 


dition  to  stock,  amounts  to  $57,845,940;  animals  slaughtered 
or  sold  for  slaughter,  $7,983,132;  home  manufactures,  $1,603,- 
513;  forest  products,  $1,089,115;  market  garden  products, 
$48,499  ;  orchard  products,  $394,749 ;  wages  paid  during  the 
year,  including  value  of  board,  for  agricultural  purposes, 
$8,342,856. 

Principal  cereal  productions — Wheat,  spring,  405,238  bush- 
els ;  winter,  2,454,641  bushels  ;  rye,  352,006  bushels  ;  Indian 
corn,  18,454,215  bushels  ;  oats,  3,220,105  bushels ;  barley,  3,186 
bushels ;  buckwheat,  20,109  bushels. 

Horses  and  neat  cattle — Number  of  horses  in  the  State, 
114,406  ;  on  farms,  102,763  ;  not  on  farms,  11,643  ;  neat  cattle 
in  the  State,  618,263 ;  on  farms,  521,162  ;  not  on  farms,  97,101. 

Cotton — Number  of  bales  about  200,000;  flax,  pounds, 
59l,552  ;  silk  cocoons,  95  ;  wool,  799,667  pounds. 

Hay,  83,540  tons;  hops,  1,100  pounds;  rice,  2,059,281 
pounds  ;  tobacco,  11,150,087  pounds. 

Maple  sugar,  21,257  pounds ;  molasses,  sorghum,  621,855 
gallons  ;  maple,  418  gallons. 

Irish  potatoes,  738,803  bushels ;  sweet  potatoes,  3,071,840 
bushels  ;,  peas  and  beans,  532,749  bushels  ;  beeswax,  109,054 
pounds;  bees'  honey,  1,404,040  pounds  ;  domestic  wine,  65,000 
gallons. 

Clover,  6&1  bushels ;  flax,  6,756  bushels ;  grass,  1,002  bushels* 

Live  Stock— Value  of  live  stock,  $21,993,967 ;  number  of 
horses,  102,763 ;  mules  and  asses,  50,684 ;  milch  cows,  196,731 ; 
working  oxen,  45.408  ;  other  cattle,  279,023 ;  sheep,  463,435  ; 
swine,  1,075,215. 

Dairy  Products — Butter,  4,207,834  "pounds;  cheese,  75,185 
pounds  ;  milk  sold,  17,145  gallons. 

Guilford  county  contains  more  improved  land  than  any 
county  in  the  State  of  North  Carolina,  the  number  of  acres 
being  156,567.  The  largest  valuation  of  farms  is  that  of 
Edgecombe  county,  the  amount  being  $3,353,471,  and  the 
total  estimated  value  of  all  the  farm  productions  for  the  same 
county,  $2,348,276.     The  live  stock  of  Mecklenburg  county  is 


67 


valued  at  $580,280,  which  is  the  largest  valuation  on  live  stock 
in  any  one  county.  The  greatest  number  of  horses  are  re- 
ported in  Davidson  county,  2,859.  Largest  number  of  mules 
in  Edgecombe  county,  1,919.  Largest  number  of  milch  cows 
in  Chatham  county,  5,410,  and  the  largest  number  of  swine, 
31,333.  Largest  number  of  working  oxen  in  Johnston  county  r 
1,689.    Largest  number  of  sheep  in  Randolph  county,  17,101. 

The  following  named  counties  are  credited  with  the  largest 
yields  of  the  following  products :  Wheat,  spring,  Stanley 
county,  63,575  bushels ;  wheat,  winter,  Davidson  county,  152,- 
693  bushels  ;  Indian  corn,  Pitt  county,  498,662  bushels  'r  oats, 
Guilford  county,  169,847  bushels ;  rice,  Brunswick  county,  748,- 
418  pounds  ;  tobacco,  Caswell  county,  2,262,053  pounds ;  cot- 
ton, Edgecombe  county,  18,361  bales ;  wool,  Guilford  county, 
31,461  pounds ;  Irish  potatoes,  Guilford  county,  22,521  bush- 
els;  sweet  potatoes,  Sampson  county,  141,373  buehels. 

Products  of  iron  and  manufacture  of  iron,  such  as  boltsr 
nuts,  railings,  &c,  $350,000. 

Products  of  leather,  $375,000. 

Products  of  4lumber,  $2,110,000. 

Products  of  paper,  $300,000. 

Products  of  textiles,  including  cotton  goods,  flax  and  linen 
goods,  carpets,  &c,  $1,643,690. 

Products  of  tobacco,  $1,718,000. 


TESTIMONIALS    OF   NORTHERN    AND  FOREIGN 
SETTLERS  IN  NORTH  CAROLINA. 

[From  "  Glimpses  of  tTie  Southern  States  of  America,"  contributed  in  a  series  of 
letters  to  the  Hamilton  (Scotland)  Advertiser  by  Duncan  Stewart,  Esq.] 

NORTH     CAROLINA — ITS   POSITION,     CLIMATE,    SCENERY   AND   PRO- 
DUCTS— CHEAP   LANDS — PERSONAL     SAFETY — SOCIETY. 

We  have  just  returned  from  a  most  extensive  tour  in  the 
States  of  North  and  South  Carolina,  Alabama,  Georgia  and  Lou- 
isiana. It  is  my  observations  on  this  journey  that  will  be  the 
subject  of  my  letters  on  the  present  occasion.  These  States  were 
in  the  very  hot-bed  of  rebellion.  I  intend  to  write  about  their 
present  condition  and  future  prospects,  both  of  which  are  of 
the  most  cheering  description.  These  countries  are  of  great 
natural  beauty  and  unlimited  resources,  rich  in  sunshine  and 
shade,  fruits,  flowers,  cotton,  sugar,  rice,  cattle,  corn,  gold, 
copper,  coal,  great  water  powers,  splendid  central  points  for 
great  manufacturing  and  commercial  enterprises.  The  future 
greatness  of  these  countries  is  beyond  the  power  of  the  most 
gifted  pen  to  describe ;  and  were  I,  in  my  feeble  way,  to  make 
the  attempt,  I  must  ingloriously  fail,  or  be  looked  upon  as  a 
madman.  Nature  has  left  nothing  undone.  She  has  scat- 
tered every  element  of  success  around  in  the  greatest  abun- 
dance. Man  only  needs  to  understand  his  interests  and  do  his 
duty. 

You  will  see  from  the  brief  outline  that  I  must  address  you 
many  times  before  I  can  touch  even  slightly  on  so  many 
themes,  each  one  of  them  great  enough  for  a  volume. 

The  railroad  from  Portsmouth  to  Weldon  runs  across  one 
corner  of  the  great  Dismal  Swamp.  From  the  little  I  saw  of 
it,  I  consider  it  most  appropriately  named,  for  anything  more 
dismal  cannot  be  well  conceived.  Between  the  points  just 
named,  preparations  for  corn  and  cotton  planting  were  being 


69 


pushed  with  vigor,  and  just  let  me  say  here,  that  if  a  deter- 
mination to  raise  all  the  cotton  possible  be  a  fair  guarantee, 
the  present  season  will  increase  the  crop,  and  our  British 
friends  may  sleep  sound  throughout  Lancashire  and  Lanark- 
shire, and  around  Belfast.  The  need  of  working  and  willing- 
ness to  work  are  becoming  more  apparent  every  day,  and  this 
is  one  of  the  most  cheering  signs  of  the  times. 

I  now  suggest  that  all  the  boys  and  girls  who  read  the  Ad- 
vertiser, and  they  number  thousands,  will  get  out  their  geogra- 
phies and  follow  my  further  wanderings  on  the  map.  This 
will  be  a  most  excellent  and  practical  study  for  them — they 
will  read  more  understanding^  and  learn  much  more  easily 
than  they  can  in  any  other  way.  I  desire  to  enlist  their  young 
hearts  in  this  hitherto  almost  sealed  up  part  of  the  globe,  for 
in  it  I  trust  hundreds  of  thousands  of  the  spare  population  of 
Scotland  will  find  happy  homes,  as  well  as  wealth. 

Many  of  them  may  rise  to  distinction  as  statesmen,  bankers, 
merchants,  manufacturers,  scholars  and  artists  ;  but  for  genera- 
tions to  come,  I  hope  there  will  be  no  opportunity  for  them  to 
become  military  or  naval  heroe6. 

Within  a  few  years,  North  Carolina  will  be  able  to  absorb 
one  million  of  emigrants,  and  I  anticipate  that  a  very  large 
per  centage  of  them  will  be  Scottish  farmers,  mechanics  and 
farm  laborers.  The  Scotch  are  in  great  favor  in  this  State,  and 
as  soon  as  the  confusion  incident  to  the  war  is  over,  I  trust  that 
the  State  will  appropriate  a  sura  sufficient  to  pay  one  half  of 
the  fare  of  at  least  twenty  thousand  laborers  from  Glasgow  to 
Raleigh,  leaving  to  the  honor  of  the  emigrant  to  refund  when 
he  gets  able. 

The  great  expanse  of  country  is  fast  becoming  the  home  of 
the  white  man,  and  no  more  delightful  homes  can  be  found 
on  this  broad  earth,  taking  richness  of  soil,  variety  of  products, 
serenity  of  climate,  and  chances  of  health.  These  States  are 
emphatically,  in  every  sense  of  the  word,  a  white  man's  coun- 
try. The  triumph  of  the  North  has  opened  up  all  these  re- 
gions to  the  suffering,  toiling  millions  of  Europe,  and  given 


70 

them  another  safety-valve  through  which  they  can  pass  with 
safety  from  their  high  pressure  condition  to  the  land  of  prom- 
ise. This  is  still  a  mere  outline ;  we  will  come  to  particulars 
hereafter. 

From  Raleigh,  the  Capital  of  the  State,  westward,  the  land 
becomes  more  and  more  elevated,  till  near  the  eastern  line  of 
Tennessee  you  come  upon  Clingman's  Peak,  the  highest  sum- 
mit east  of  the  Rocky  Mountains.  It  is  6,941  feet  high,  or 
twice  as  high  as  Ben  Lomond,  and  a  little  over  four  times  the 
height  of  the  Petland  Hills,  or  higher  than  the  classic  Knowles 
piled  on  top  of  Ben  Nevis.  These  local  comparisons  will  ena- 
ble you  to  form  some  idea  of  the  mountains  of  western  North 
Carolina.  Mitchell's  Peak  is  6,732  feet  high,  Roan  Mountain 
is  6,270  feet,  and  its  top  is  a  great  broad  meadow. 

This  is  the  land  of  corn  and  cattle,  clear  streams,  speckled 
trout,  buoyant  spirits,  "  stalwart  men  and  bonnie  lasses,"  and 
apples  and  peaches  of  the  variety  that  must  have  flourished  in 
Eden.  All  kinds  of  vegetables  thrive  most  luxuriantly  in  this 
section.  The  mountains  are  fine  grazing  lands  to  their  very 
tops.  Their  high  elevation  keeps  them  cool  in  summer,  or 
rather  renders  them  delightful  homes;  on  the  other  hand, 
their  far  south  latitude  gives  them  a  sort  of  south  of  England 
winter,  only  a  little  colder. 

From  this  region  will  pour  forth  in  a  few  years  the  Dunlop, 
Cheddar  and  Cheshire  cheese  of  America. 

Its  butter,  wool,  mutton  and  beer  will  be  famous  in  the 
cities  of  Baltimore,  Philadelphia,  New  York,  Boston  and  New 
Orleans.  Its  hams  and  bacon  will  vie  with  the  most  savory 
and  delicious  of  these  articles  now  cured  in  Cincinnati  or 
Louisville.  The  Scotch  or  English  stock  farmer  who  pur- 
chases largely  of  these  lands  to-day,  if  not  over  forty-five  years 
of  age,  and  who  commenses  to  stock  them  up,  will  live  to  see 
his  children  among  the  wealthiest  in  the  country.  Skill  and 
capital  will  meet  a  large  and  sure  reward  in  this  section  of  the 
State. 

Wheat,  cattle  and  fruits  of  all  kinds,  peaches,  apples,  apricots, 


71 

neetarines,  wild  grapes,  and  an  immense  variety  of  berries  can 
be  raised  here  to  great  advantage,  as  well  as  oats,  rye  and  po 
tatoes,  the  latter  also  grow  among  the  mountains  in  considera- 
ble abundance  and  in  great  perfection. 

In  all  the  districts  of  country  I  have  recommended,  lands 
are  plenty  and  cheap,  the  impoverishment  of  the  war  compelled 
many  of  the  great  land-holders  to  part  with  estates  or  portions 
of  them. 

I  now  come  to  the  question  of  personal  safety.  On  this 
point  I  will  say  that  settlers,  coming  here  either  as  planters  or 
laborers,  will  be  as  safe  as  in  a  corner  of  Scotland ;  that  the 
native  inhabitants  will  extend  to  them,  in  good  faith,  the  right 
hand  of  both  fellowship  and  friendship,  and  that  well-educated, 
refined  and  respectable  families  becoming  planters,  will  have 
no  trouble  in  entering  the  best  society  in  the  State.  Old  North 
Carolina  has  large  numbers  of  first-class  families,  and  I  am 
glad  to  say  very  many  of  them  are  of  Scottish  descent,  of  which 
they  are  justly  proud. 

Again,  Mr.  Stewart,  in  his  report  of  .North  Carolina,  writes: 

"  Southern  Domestic  Life — Treatment  of  Strangers — Min- 
eral Wealth  of  North  Carolina — Inducements  to  Settlers. — I 
spent  the  evening  with  a  gentleman  to  whom  I  had  been  intro- 
duced. Here  I  may  say,  as  well  as  anywhere  else,  what  I  have 
got  to  say  on  Southern  domestic  life,  and  the  manner  in  which 
strangers  are  received  and  treated.  I  found  this  family  just 
what  I  found  every  family  whose  hospitality  I  had  the  honor 
to  enjoy,  and  they  were  many — models  of  what  refined  families 
should  be,  in  every  sense  of  the  word,  a  total  absence  of  parade 
or  fuss,  a  warm  welcome,  which  you  felt  was  also  sincere,  while 

"  To  every  guest  the  appropriate  speech  was  made, 
And  every  duty  with  distinction  paid, 
Respectful,  easy,  pleasant,  and  polite." 

Wealthy  families  at  the  South  are  less  ostentatious  but  more 
sincere,  than  at  the  North,  and  I  think  there  is  greater  cor- 
diality, with  more  freedom  and  ease  of  manner  in  their  homes, 
both  towards  strangers  and  neighbors.     In  such  families  the 


72 

ladies  speak  well,  and  with  charming  grace  and  simplicity* 
The  tables  are  always  well  spread  with  the  luxuries  of  the 
season  and  neighborhood,  and  the  cooking  is  excellent.  Among 
themselves  they  are  remarkably  social ;  formal  calls  of  thirty 
to  forty-five  secoDds  are  unknown  in  the  towns  and  cities  of 
the  South. 

Family  ties  are  strong,  and  children  address  parents  with 
tenderness  and  respect,  who  in  turn  use  some  endearing  ex- 
pressions almost  every  time  they  address  any  of  the  young 
folks.  Pride  of  birth,  admiration  for  genius,  professional  at- 
tainments, and  statesmanship,  are  universal  at  the  South.  A 
great  man  always  becomes  greater  there,  and  acquires  more  in- 
fluence year  by  year  ;  hence,  before  the  war,  their  most  able 
and  eloquent  men  were  always  found  in  the  highest  places  of 
trust  and  honor.     At  the  North  the  case  is  different. 

I  will  now  touch  on  the  mineral  wealth  of  North  Carolina. 
In  Chatham  county,  which  is  the  first  county  west  of  Wake, 
are  found  immense  beds  of  coal,  iron,  fire-clay,  and  limestone. 
The  coal  beds  are  of  great  thickness,  and  fine  quality  j  the  iron 
ore  is  very  rich,  and  of  a  most  excellent  kind.  The  centre  of 
these  rich  deposits  are  not  over  forty  miles  from  Raleigh,  and 
a  railroad  is  now  being  built,  and  is  nearly  completed,  that  will 
unite  the  Capital  of  the  State  with  this  fountain  of  untold 
wealth.  With  every  thing  needed  to  produce  pig  iron  in  such 
abundance,  and  in  close  proximity  to  each  other,  Lake  Superior 
and  Pennsylvania  will  soon  have  a  most  formidable  competition 
in  the  iron  markets  of  the  country.  Iron  can  be  made  there 
to-day  of  a  quality  as  good  as  No.  1  Gartsherrie  at  10  dollars 
per  ton,  currency  value.  When  capital,  within  one  or  two 
years,  begins  to  develope  this  mineral  wealth,  and  produces 
iron  so  cheap,  will  northern  iron-masters  go  before  Congress 
and  ask  for  a  discriminating  internal  revenue  tax  to  protect 
them  against  the  rich  mines  of  the  South?  If  they  do  not,  it 
will  not  be  on  account  of  their  modesty  or  lack  of  "  brass." 

Cheap  iron  will  wonderfully  increase  iron  ship  building,  iron 
house  building,  iron  railroad  car  building,  iron  railroad  bridge 


73 


building,  and  iron  bridge  building  of  all  kinds.  W!  ere  ten 
men  now  find  employment  in  working  iron  one  hund.  ed  will 
be  then  employed.  Where  one  blast  furnace  at  the  North 
now  obscures  the  light  of  day  with  its  smoke,  and  rei'ccts  a 
lurid  glare  through  the  darkness  of  the  night,  one  h  ndred 
furnaces  will  hide  the  noonday  sun  with  their  black  ( 'ouds, 
and  make  the  night  as  light  as  day  with  their  pillars  f  fire 
along  the  mountain  sides  of  North  Carolina,  Northern  Gt  >rgiat 
Northern  Alabama  and  Tennessee.  Then  instead  of  a  tram- 
melled trade  and  a  restricted  commerce,  the  greatest  mere  utile 
marine  the  world  has  ever  beheld  will  carry  the  greatest  com- 
merce ever  dreamt  of  by  man  into  and  among  the  fifteen  hun- 
dred millions  of  people  who  have  "  a  local  habitation  a  id  a 
name"  outside  the  boundaries  of  the  United  State  of 
America.  We  shall  then  parody  the  poet,  and  instea  I  of 
saying 

"No  pent-up  Utiea  contracts  our  powers, 
For  the  whole  boundless  continent  is  ours," 

we  will  say, 

"  No  pent-up  trade  destroys  our  growing  powers, 
For  the  whole  boundless  world  is  ours." 

I  have  now  briefly  sketched  some  of  the  advantages  hat 
North  Carolina  presents  to  settlers.  To  the  people  of  Scot!  ind 
it  offers  greater  inducements  than  any  other  quarter.  It  is  not 
subject  to  long  cold  winters,  like  Canada  and  the  States  of  the 
north-west ;  it  is  free  from  the  excessive  heat  of  the  far  Sor  tb ; 
it  is  not  subject  to  the  fearful  want  of  rain  that  proves  so  lis- 
astrous  to  the  Australian  farmer ;  it  is  much  nearer  the  1  nd 
of  their  birth  and  the  kindred  left  at  home  than  NewZeala  d; 
it  is  only  one  day's  more  sailing  to  Norfolk  than  New  Yc  k; 
it  is  400  to  1,500  miles  nearer  the  sea  than  the  States  of  he 
north-west ;  so  that  its  products  can  reach  the  markets  of  he 
world  at  a  much  lower  rate  of  freight — so  much  lower,  t  iat 
the  saving  in  freight  alone  would  pay  the  coet  of  an  improved 
first-class  plantation  in  ten  years  ;  it  has  a  very  large  population 


74: 

of  Scottish  descent ;  it  is  a  strongly  Presbyterian  State,  hence 
congenial  to  their  religious  views  ;  its  people  are  very  favorable 
to  the  interests  of  education,  hence  high  mental  culture  is  at- 
tainable. To  the  banker  and  capitalist  it  offers  a  high  rate  of 
interest,  that  can  be  well  secured.  To  the  cotton  manufacturer 
it  offers  cheap  water-power  and  abundance  of  cheap  coal  and  a 
healthy  country,  in  the  close  vicinity  of  the  cotton  fields. 
To  iron-masters  it  offers  inducements  equal,  if  not  superior, 
to  any  other  quarter  of  the  globe.  The  future  Wilsons  of 
Dundyvan  and  Bairds  of  Gartsherrie,  of  this  country,  will  be 
found  in  Chatham  county,  North  Carolina.  Where  the  cotton 
and  iron  trade  flourishes,  all  other  incidental  industries  will 
abound. 

To  the  Scottish  farmer  it  offers  a  plantation  at  from  one  to 
two  years  of  his  present  rent  per  acre,  on  which  a  large  indus- 
trious family  can  win  a  fortune  in  ten  year ;  a  mild  climate,  a 
great  variety  of  productions  that  come  to  maturity  in  convenient 
rotation  and  enables  him  to  keep  at  work  with  vigor  all  the 
year  round.  To  the  Scottish  stock-raiser  it  is  an  earthly  para- 
dise, the  mountains  and  valleys  of  the  western  portion  of  the 
State  being  so  much  richer  than  the  Lammermoor  hills,  the 
Pentland  hills,  or  the  hills  around  the  home  of  Dandy  Dinmout. 
Nothing  in  the  highlands  of  Scotland  can  compare  with  these 
grazing  mountains  for  richness,  and  Switzerland  cannot  vie 
with  them  in  beautiful  scenery,  while  no  snow-clad  peaks 
threaten  the  valley  with  destructive  avalanches.  To  the 
laborer,  good  wages,  kindley  treatment,  a  fine  garden,  where 
abundance  of  fruits,  flowers  and  vegetables,  that  are  easily 
raised,  will  make  his  life  one  of  rational  enjoyment,  and  give 
his  family  a  chance  to  climb  fortunes  highest  ladder. 

With  these  glorious  advantages  the  entire  emigration  of 
Scotland  should  be  directed  to  this  one  point  for  the  present. 
A  new  Scotland  can  be  founded  which,  at  some  future  day, 
may  rival  the  old  in  science,  literature,  and  song,  where  the 
liberty  eo  loved  by  Bruce  and  Wallace  will  be  tempered  with 
a  love  of  justice  founded  on  the  teachings  of  Calvin  and  Knox. 


T5 

From  Mr.  Scott,  a  gentleman  formerly  a  resident  of  Glas- 
gow, and  the  past  three  years  residing  near  Kaleigh,  North 
Carolina : 

I  find  that  English  gentlemen  who  discuss  the  advantages  of 
owning  an  estate  in  North  Carolina  generally  inquire  as  to  the 
possibilities  and  profits  of  stock  farming.  Cotton  and  tobacco 
they  know  little  of,  but  if  stock  can  also  be  profitably  raised, 
then,  with  the  other  reputed  profitable  crops,  they  think  them- 
selves placed  beyond  a  contingency.  The  general  impression 
prevails  that  when  the  tobacco  or  cotton  belts  are  reached, 
there  grazing  ceases  to  be  profitable.  It  is  true  that  in  the 
days  of  slavery  the  plantation  productions  were  nearly  con- 
fined to  cotton  and  tabacco.  These  crops  were  well  adapted  to 
slave  labor,  and  requiring  little  of  the  skill  for  stock  growing, 
were  favorite  productions  with  the  slave.  Taking  these  facts 
together  with  the  admitted  profits  from  these  staples,  there 
was  every  reason  why  planters  should  prefer  not  to  trouble 
themselves  with  stock  raising. 

It  would  be  difficult  to  give  in  figures  the  exact  profits  of 
stock  raising  in  this  State,  but  it  is  certainly  most  profitable, 
and  land  owners  and  plantation  owners  tell  you  so.  They 
have  not  had  the  money  since  the  war  to  go  into  the  business 
on  such  a  scale  as  they  would  like,  but  every  one,  so  soon  as  Le 
makes  a  little  money  in  cotton  growing  goes  in  also  for  stock 
raising.  Messrs.  Randolph,  Tilley,  Dr.  Gregory,  and  others  in 
that  neighborhood,  have  grown  cotton  extensively  and  made 
money,  but  so  certain  are  they  of  the  advantage  and  profits  of 
stock  raising  that  they  made  most  liberal  arrangements  with 
young  Englishmen  to  dovelop  this  branch  of  farming. 

Mixed  husbandry  is  in  every  sense  the  beat,  and  I  am  satis- 
fied that  every  cotton  farmer  to  be  continuously  prosperous, 
must  lay  out  his  farm  for  it.  If  he  raises  wheat  and  corn  he 
will  have  bread  for  himself  and  servants,  and  food  for  his 
mules  and  horses.  He  must  also  grow  potatoes  to  serve  his 
establishment ;  root  crops,  such  as  mangolds,  beets,  &c,  for  his 
stock  ;  clover,  partly  to  onrich  his  land,  and  partly  to  feed  his 


76 

stock.  If  he  does  this  he  can  save  the  whole  price  of  his  cot- 
ton crop,  and  he  can  grow  a  full  crop ;  half  a  bale  is  an  aver- 
age crop,  but  two  bales  can  be  grown  and  every  pound  short  of 
this  is  short  of  a  full  crop,  and  so  much  labor  lost.  Although, 
at  the  same  time,  any  farmer  getting  his  land  into  condition  to 
produce  one  bale  per  acre,  is  sure  to  make  a  fortune  properly 
managed. 

To  any  one  who  asks  our  special  advice,  we  say  select  a  farm 
where  cotton,  tobacco  and  wheat  can  be  grown,  there  also  you 
are  sure  of  being  able  to  grow  clover,  and  raise  and  keep 
stock. 

Mr.  Scott  further  adds :  So  little  has  it  been  the  custom 
amongst  English  and  Scotchmen,  contemplating  immigrating 
in  search  of  a  home,  to  consider  the  Southern  States  as  in  any 
wise  suitable,  that  it  seems  in  every  way  desirable  in  this 
6heet  specially  to  invite  the  attention  of  our  friends  in  the 
old  country,  to  the  subject.  We  do  not  much  wonder  at  the 
fact.  The  conception  which  our  brethren  in  the  Northern 
States  have  had  of  the  climate,  soil  and  mode  of  life  of  the 
citizens  until  a  very  recent  period,  was  of  the  crudest  kind. 
Many  reasons  may  be  assigned  for  this.  Such  is  the  idea 
which  invariably  prevails,  that  the  heat  in  summer  was  ex- 
cessive and  overpowering,  that  to  be  associated  with  negroes, 
especially  in  the  relation  of  owner  and  slave,  was  barbarous 
and  degrading,  and  the  natural  and  well-known  jealousy  with 
which  the  citizens  of  the  Southern  States  regarded  what  they 
believed  to  be  an  invasion  of  the  system  under  which  they  at 
least  had  striven  and  lived  in  ease  and  luxury,  whatever  pro- 
gress was  made  in  the  matter  of  civilization  and  improvement 
of  the  countries  in  agriculture  and  commerce,  all  operated  as  a 
powerful  deterrant  to  the  peopling  of  these  States.  In  Great 
Britain  the  Southern  States  were  regarded  simply  as  the  source 
whence  their  cotton  supplies  were  obtained.  The  life  of  a  cot- 
ton planter  and  plantation  owner  was  supposed  to  be  one  of  mag- 
nificent ease  and  luxury,  supported  by  the  labor  of  his  negroes 
and  the  enterprise  and  industry  of  the  old  and  New  England 


77 

manufacturers,  which  converted  that  labor  into  gold.  Fancy 
pictured  him  reclining  on  an  ottoman  like  an  eastern  prince, 
surrounded  by  his  slaves,  each  with  an  allotted  task,  as  trivial 
as  the  life  he  seemed  fated  to  live  himself.  That  these  States, 
and  especially  the  good  old  State  of  North  Carolina,  abounded 
in  fertile  lands,  magnificent  hills,  beautiful  valleys,  meandering 
streams  and  variegated  woodlands,  charming  in  their  aspect 
and  character  almost  beyond  conception,  we  venture  to  assert 
never  once  entered  the  minds  of  our  brethren  in  the  old 
countries,  not  to  mention  the  more  latent  resources  of  the  State, 
which  consist  of  every  variety  of  mineral  of  profitable  de- 
velopment yet  known  to  the  geologist  and  mineralogist. 

We  have  endeavored,  and,  in  great  measure,  succeeded  in 
dispelling  those  notions,  and  in  awakening  an  interest  in  our 
State,  in  Europe,  Canada  and  the  North,  never  before  realized, 
especially  amongst  our  English  and  Scottish  friends,  whom  we 
invite  and  wish  to  see  come  amongst  us  in  large  numbers. 
We  feel  confident  in  asserting  that  no  State  in  the  Union  so 
much  resembles  the  old  country  in  most  of  its  features  as  the 
good  Old  North  State.  The  Norfolk,  Suffolk,  and  Essex  wheat 
growers  in  England,  the  Lothians,  Carse  and  upland  ditto  in 
Scotland,  all  can  find  their  homes  re-prod  need  in  our  Wake, 
Warren,  Franklin,  Granville,  Halifax  and  other  counties. 
Representatives  of  the  old  country  dairy  districts  we  have  in 
Buncombe,  Yancey,  Watauga  and  other  counties,  and  our  glo- 
rious mountains,  with  their  rich  alluvial  soils,  nearly  all  of 
which  can  be  cultivated  to  the  summit,  would  require  but  little 
clearing  to  render  them  unequalled  in  the  world  for  richness 
of  pasture  and  adaptability  to  stock  raising  and  wool  growing 
of  the  finest  and  most  profitable  textures. 

We  would  address  ourselves  to  Scotchmen  particularly.  We 
know  there  are  many  wealthy  farmers  in  that  country  who 
have  difficulty  in  deciding  how  they  can  best  give  their  sons  a 
start  in  the  world.  The  professions  are  over-crowded.  Farms 
are  high  rented  and  likely  to  go  higher,  the  grain  trade,  so 
speculative  in  its  character,  seems  a  natural  one  for  the  son  of 


78 

a  farmer  to  embark  in,  and  yet  to  how  many  has  it  proved  dis- 
astrous and  ruinous  ?  Hence,  in  the  counties  before  referred 
to,  we  have  cleared  farms  of  from  300  to  1,000  acres,  with  ex- 
cellent dwelling-houses,  containing,  many  of  them,  spacious 
halls,  large-sized  rooms  and  frescoed  ceilings,  entering  which 
you  are  at  once  struck  with  the  evidences  of  former  home-like 
comfort  and  elegance,  all  of  which  can  be  bought  and  possessed 
at  once,  in  fee  simple,  for  little  more  than  one-half  the  annual 
rent  of  such  a  farm  in  Scotland. 

Prices  of  products  bear  no  unfavorable  comparison  with 
those  of  the  Northern  and  British  markets,  so  that  with  the 
application  of  such  industry  as  characterizes  the  Scottish  far- 
mer at  home,  aided  by  the  superior  climate  here,  no  where  in 
the  world  does  the  road  to  wealth  and  comfort  seem  so  easy 
and  smooth,  no  where  else  can  the  farmer  with  small  capital 
find  equal  advantages. 

Besides  the  specialty  of  cotton,  the  cultivation  of  oats,  hay, 
potatoes,  turnips,  mangolds,  beets,  &c,  is  exceedingly  profit- 
able, but  with  the  exception  of  cotton  and  potatoes,  all  else* 
should  be  consumed  by  stock  kept  on  the  farm,  so  that  a  suf 
ficiency  of  manure  should  be  at  hand  to  maintain  the  land  in 
condition  to  produce  full  crops  of  whatever  the  farmer  elects 
to  cultivate  as  his  money  crop.  This,  however,  every  good 
farmer  understands,  and  in  conclusion,  would  only  say  that  in 
cordially  inviting  our  brethren  in  the  old  country  to  come 
amongst  us,  we  believe  we  are  rendering  them  an  invaluable 
service  as  well  as  the  State  whose  resources  are  so  boundless. 

From  a  former  Captain  in  the  English  army  : 

Here,  in  old  Granville  county,  the  farms  and  the  crops  aije 
looking  well,  and,  for  myself,  I  hope  this,  my  second  year,  to 
do  even  better  than  last.  Probably  the  money  I  laid  out  last 
year  returned  me  twenty  percent.  All  the  laud  here  has  been  > 
badly  cultivated,  having  little  or  no  manure  applied  to  it,  but 
it  will  grow  almost  anything  if  properly  cared  forv  I  like  the 
climate,  the  country  and  the  life,  and  have  found  every  one 


79 

very  kind.     I  think  Kaleigh  one  of  the  prettiest  places  I  have 
seen  anywhere. 

I  have  not  at  all  regretted  coming  out.  I  am  thankful  to 
say  I  was  not  allowed  to  be  one  who  was  disappointed  in  the 
least.  Of  course,  this  section  of  country  is  as  different  as  pos- 
sible from  England,  as  is  also  the  general  appearance,  manners 
and  customs  of  many  of  its  inhabitants,  and  every  one  should 
be  prepared,  before  deciding  to  come  here,  to  accept  the  country 
as  it  is,  and  the  people  as  they  are,  then  all  will  go  smoothly. 
No  one  should  come  out  without  expecting  and  having  made 
up  their  minds  to  discomforts  of  some  kind.  At  the  same 
time,  I  think  any  one  would  find  the  life  pleasant  and  agree- 
able. Labor  is  pretty  cheap.  It  would  be  best  for  any  one 
coming  here  to  have  at  least  £300.  "With  that  and  economy, 
they  could  get  a  nice  farm  of  100  acres,  with  good  house,  out- 
buildings, &c. 

Dr.  Palemon  John,  of  Elizabeth  City,  North  Carolina,  for 
twelve  y«ars  editor  of  a  leading  journal  in  Central  Pennsyl- 
vania, says : 

"We  have  visited  and  traveled  through  fourteen  States  of  this 
Union,  and  we  assert  what  is  a  fact  when  we  say  that  in  none 
did  we  find  so  many  advantages  for  successful  agriculture  as  in 
this  part  of  North  Carolina.  We  have  now  lived  here  five 
years,  and  we  claim  that  in  that  time  we  have  learned  all  about 
the  country  and  the  people,  and  we  unhesitatingly  declare  that 
in  our  opinion  the  honest,  industrious  immigrant  can  nowhere 
find  a  more  congenial  home. 

There  is  no  question  that  the  ?State  of  North  Carolina  has 
surpassing  inducements  to  offer  to  the  immigrant.  Its  fruitful 
fields  promise  an  abundant  return  for  his  labor.  With  its  open 
highways,  a  civilized  people  and  all  the  advantages  of  long  set- 
tlement, it  has  hundreds  and  thousands  of  acres  of  land  tha 
can  be  had  quite  as  cheap  as  in  the  pioneer  territories  of  thet 
west. 

It  is  a  great  mistake  to  suppose  that  the  climate  of  North 
Carolina  is  too  hot  for  white  men  to  labor  in  the  fields.     The 


proof  of  t  /is  is  in  the  fact  that  such  work  has  always  been  done. 
The  hardest  work,  requiring  exposure  to  the  sun  all  daylong, 
has  beer,  performed  by  white  laborers  since  the  settlement  of 
the  Sta'o. 

We  .ave  recently  had  visits  from  gentlemen  who  have  trav- 
elled xtensively,  especially  in  the  South,  and  they  tell  us  that 
now'  ere  have  they  found  so  much  fraternal  good  feeling  as  in 
Nc  ,h  Carolina.  They  say  that  unlike  in  some  of  the  South- 
er i  States  they  have  visited,  they  find  no  sullen  mourning 
'  ver  the  "  Lost  Cause,"  but  a  spirit  manifested  full  of  buoyant 
iiope — a  disposition  to  go  to  work,  and  especially  a  desire  shown 
to  cordially  greet  those  who  come  to  cast  their  lots  among 
them.  And  this  is  every  word  true.  We  can  testify  to  it  from 
a  five  years'  personal  experience.  The  people  of  eastern  North 
Carolina  are,  in  this  respect,  so  much  like  our  own  that  we 
scarcely  felt  the  difference.  They  are  hospital,  social,  kind. 
There  is  no  locality  where  the  immigrant,  be  he  from  the 
North,  the  West,  or  from  Europe,  will  be  more  kindly  treated. 

Mr.  J.  E.  Rue,  of  New  Jersey,  states : 

You  wish  to  learn  my  experience  as  a  planter  in  North 
Carolina.  I  will  be  brief.  Three  years  ago  I  came  to  North 
Carolina  from  New  Jersey,  and^bought  a  farm  with  others  in 
Halifax  county.  All  our  improvements — and  they  are  exten- 
sive— have  been  paid  for  from  the  products  of  the  farm,  and  in 
three  years  we  have  doubled  the  producing  capacity  of  it. 

North  Carolina  is  one  of  the  best  States  of  this  Union  to 
settle  in,  if  a  man  has  common  sense,  energy  and  capital,  and 
will  give  his  life  to  his  business.  Improve  the  land  as  it  is  in 
New  Jersey,  and  it  is  a  much  better  country.  He  can  raise 
all  the  crops  of  the  North  and  cotton  over  them.  It  is  a  great 
fruit  country,  and  all  that  is  needed  is  to  set  it  out.  The  cli- 
mate is  admirable,  and  we  can  work  all  the  year  round. 

In  my  section  society  is  good,  and  our  intercourse  with  the 
people  all  we  desire.  I  can  say  to  all  good  men  and  true,  come 
to  North  Carolina. 


81 


Extracts  from  letter  of  G-.  S.  Bellis,  late  of  New  Jersey  : 

I  came  to  Halifax,  North  Carolina,  in  the  spring  of  186& 
to  examine  lands  with  a  view  of  purchasing  for  the  purpose  of 
raising  and  dealing  in  fruits.  I  was  soon  convinced  that  both 
the  soil  and  climate  were  pre-eminently  adapted  to  the  culture 
of  fruit  of  every  variety.  Since  that  time  I  have  been  en- 
gaged in  its  cultivation  with  remarkable  success.  I  have  now 
on  my  plantation  of  one  thousand  acres,  over  twenty  thousand 
fine  peach  trees.  I  have  shipped  two  crops  from  the  orchards 
which  have  paid  a  fine  profit.  With  a  favorable  season  for 
fruit  the  yield  will  net  at  least  $300.00  per  acre. 

I  have  raised  the  Early  Louise,  Early  Rivers  and  Poster 
peaches  which  are  great  favorites.  They  all  ripen  in  June- 
and  early  part  of  July.  The  fruit  is  very  fine,  and  sells  very 
high  in  the  market ;  it  sold  last  year  as  high  as  $10.00  per- 
orate with  less  than  three  pecks  to  a  crate. 

I  have  found  numbers  of  trees  in  my  orchards,  four  year& 
old,  that  have  been  well  cultivated,  producing  two  crates  to  a 
tree.     This  is  a  remarkable  yield  for  trees  of  that  age. 

I  have  a  plan  by  which  I  convert  old  and  valueless  trees- 
into  new  fruit — budding  the  new  variety  on  old  stumps,  which 
gives  the  new  fruit  in  a  much  shorter  time  than  is  required  to 
raise  the  tree.  I  am  satisfied  that  this  will  not  succeed  so  well 
in  any  other  place  but  this.  The  season  is  of  sufficient  length 
to  justify  this  proceeding  which  is  proper  only  in  the  fall. 

I  can  pick  out  10,000  trees  that  I  would  not  sell  for  $5.00  a 
tree.  The  land  has  been  greatly  improved,  and  its  value 
much  enhanced.  The  soil  is  loamy,  light  and  a  little  sandy, 
with  clay  subsoil. 

6 


LIFE  IN  NORTH  CAROLINA. 


The  following  communication  we  clip  from  the  London 
Daily  News,  8th  August,  1874,  and  written  by  a  lady  who 
spent  the  two  past  years  in  the  town  of  Asheville.  We  also 
copy  the  comments  of  the  London  News  Editor  thereon. 

To  the  Editor  of  the  Daily  News : 

Sik: — Some  five  or  six  years  ago  you  had  a  long  and  inter- 
esting series  of  papers  upon  the  great  advantages  of  persons 
with  moderate  means  emigrating  from  England  to  Virginia  or 
North  Carolina. 

These  writings  appealed  to  our  imagination,  and  made  us 
think  we  should  like  to  go  and  live  in  such  a  splendid  climate 
and  possess  our  own  thousand  acres  for  our  children's  inher- 
itance to  the  latest  time,  but  were  apparently  immovably  fixed 
by  an  untransferable  manufacturing  business  in  North  Stafford- 
shire, and  thought  we  should  live  and  die  there.  This,  how- 
ever, was  not  to  be ;  for  a  year  or  two  later  a  sudden  and  pro- 
tracted attack  of  congestion  and  abscess  of  the  lungs  threaten- 
ing consumption,  seized  my  husband,  and  made  it  imperative 
that  we  should  leave  that  neighborhood,  and  so  for  a  year  or 
two,  we  tried  all  the  warm  southern  places  in  England,  all  to 
no  avail ;  then  the  physician's  fiat  went  out,  that  we  must  leave 
England  or  die.  We  chose  the  former  alternative,  but  as  we 
had  very  many  relatives  in  North  America,  and  thought  we 
could  more  advantageously  settle  our  family  on  that  continent 
than  in  Europe,  we  decided  to  go  in  the  spring  of  1872. 

This  is  now  rather  more  than  two  years  ago,  and  as  we 
went  for  health,  I  may  now  state  that  our  invalid,  that  almost 
every  doctor  thought  beyond  the  possibility  of  recover}7,  is  now 


83 


quite  well.  While  making  inquiries  about  where  we  should 
locate  ourselves,  we  read  of  an  obscure  distant  town  among 
the  Blue  Ridge  mountains  of  North  Carolina,  where  consump- 
tive people  went  with  marvellously  good  results.  The  eleva- 
tion of  the  town  is  2,000  feet  above  the  ocean,  and  the  atmos- 
phere wonderfully  bright  and  pure.  We  decided,  therefore,  to 
go,  although  the  distance  from  New  York  was  800  or  900 
miles.  The  description  of  a  voyage  to  the  New  World  is  so 
well  known  that  I  will  pass  it  by,  although  every  one  who  first 
crosses  the  Atlantic  feels  it  is  an  epoch  in  his  life.  The  real 
interest  of  our  southward  journey  began  when  we  embarked 
on  one  of  the  beautiful  steamers  on  the  Chesapeake  Bay,  at 
Baltimore.  The  bay  itself  is  so  very  beautiful,  and  when  the 
sun  set  and  the  stars  came  out,  I  felt  I  had  never  known  before 
what  starlight  was.  The  steamer  itself  was,  in  all  its  appoint- 
ments, like  a  first-class  hotel,  and  oh  !  the  relief  of  being  for  a 
few  hours  free  from  mosquitoes. 

New  York  and  Philadelphia  had  left  ks  in  a  state  like  peo- 
ple recovering  from  small-pox.  We  left  the  steamer  after 
a  five  o'clock  in  the  morning  breakfast  at  Norfolk,  in  Virginia, 
and  there  commenced  our  land  journey  by  rail  in  a  westerly 
direction,  passing  through  apart  of  the  "  Dismal  Swamp"  that 
Mrs.  Stowe  made  us  all  so  familiar  with  in  "  Dred."  Norfolk 
is  quite  a  considerable  seaport  town  and  very  flourishing. 

The  journey  from  Raleigh  to  Norfolk  is  very  uninterest- 
ing, excepting  that  was  the  first  time  we  sew  cotton  and  to- 
bacco growing  and  the  black  people  -cultivating  it. 

At  Raleigh  we  saw  also  for  the  first  time  a  thoroughly 
southern  house  in  the  holtel  built  of  wood  and  each  story  pro- 
vided with  deep  verandahs,  the  lower  ones  of  which  seemed  to 
form  the  Exchange  of  the  town,  (I  beg  its  pardon,)  city. 

Raleigh,  really,  is  a  very  pretty  little  place.  Several  of  the 
principal  people  there  very  kindly  called  upon  us  and  almost 
begged  us  to  take  up  our  abode  there,  but  the  great  heat  and 
the  musquitoes  frightened  us  away  to  the  promised  coolness  of 
the  mountains.     So  after  a  few  days'  rest  we  set  oft'  again  about 


84 

8  o'clock  at  night  for  our  western  destination,  the  trains  in  that 
direction  going  only  at  that  time. 

We  had  to  stay  for  an  hour  or  two  at  one  place  and  change 
trains,  and  while  there  we  watched  the  early  dawn  and  sun- 
rise. The  sky  was  as  clear  as  possible  and  there  was  the  red- 
dening East  growing  brighter  every  minnte ;  but  what  was  that 
mystery,  to  the  north?'  I  think  it  must  have  been,  was  another 
bright  clear  light  in  the  heavens,  stretching  about  half  way  to 
the  zenith,  but  more  sharply  defined  than  the  true  sunriser 
though  growing  paler  as  the  sunlight  advanced.  There  was 
no  moon  at  that  time,  besides  it  was  altogether  unlike  moon- 
light. Some  of  the  country  people  looked  at  it,  but  did  not 
understand  or  care  about  it ;  to  mo  it  was  a  great  joy,  like  what 
I  have  experienced  once  or  twice  in  seeing  unexpectedly  an 
eclipse,  and  I  recollected  seeing  a  picture  of  the  Zodiacal  light 
sometimes  seen  in  September  in  southern  latitudes,  and  this- 
was  one  of  those  rare  celestial  exhibitions. 

About  noon  we  arrived  at  the  terminus  of  the  railroad  in 
that  direction.  I  ought  scarcely  to  say  that,  for  the  railroad  is- 
cut  much  farther,  but  not  finished. 

My  poor  invalid  husband  and  little  children  were  by  this 
time  considerably  exhausted,  for  we  had  been  traveling  nearly 
a  week,  and  we  were  now  only  about  twenty-four  miles  from 
our  journey's  end,  and  this  we  were  to  accomplish  by  coach. 

There  exists  really  no  excuse  for  the  discomfort  of  this.  As 
we  bumped  along  we  tried  to  say  to  each  other,  continually, 

"how  beau ,"  but  a  big  stone  stopped  us  before  we  could 

say  "  tiful.""  The  hills  became  lofty,  with  here  and  there  lovely 
glades  between  the  trees,  and  we  looked  involuntarily  for  gen- 
tlemen's houses,  but  there  was  only  here  and  there  any  sign  of 
cultivation,  and  there  are  thousands  of  acres  of  splendid  timber 
clothing  the  hills,  their  summits  without  any  signs  of  life. 

As  we  approached  Asheville,  the  roads  became  a  little  im- 
proved, though  still  very  bad  in  places.  "We  were  certainly 
too  tired  when  we  arrived  there  to  enjoy  the  magnificent 
scenery  surrounding  the  town. 


The  town  i8  so  situated  that  several  ranges  of  mountains  and 
hills  are  visable  in  different  directions.  I  have  asked  the 
names  of  distant  points,  and  have  been  told  that  they  were  in 
Tennessee,  from  forty  to  sixty  miles  away,  and  yet  so  sharply 
defined  that  they  appeared  within  a  few  miles  of  us.  Well 
may  they  be  called  "  Blue"  Ridge  mountains,  for  I  have  seen 
every  shade  of  blue,  from  intense  ultra-marine  to  a  pale  light, 
but  bright  clear  blue  color  like  our  own  skes  in  England  on  a 
fine  midsummer  day.  I  have  traced  branches  of  trees  miles 
away,  and  It  is  singular  that  the  brilliant  clearness  of  the  at- 
mosphere has  stamped  a  corresponding  clearness  of  recollection 
of  every  detail  of  that  enchanting  and  ever  varying  panorama* 

As  we  determined  to  stay  twelve  months  at  least  to  give  the 
place  a  trial,  we  rented  a  handsome  house  for  eighty  pounds 
a  year,  a  large  rent  for  those  parts,  but  interest  is  high  there. 
This  house  would  be  considered  a  great  looking  villa  residence 
in  any  English  town. 

It  is  built  of  wood,  painted  white,  with  outside  green  shut- 
ters to  every  one  of  the  numerous  windows,  for  all  the  prin- 
cipal rooms  had  four  large  sash  windows.  A  beautiful  broad 
covered  piazza  or  verandah,  nearly  forty  feet  long  and  ten  or 
twelve  broad,  and  one  smaller  at  the  back,  had  to  do  duty  as 
butler's  pantry  in  summer  for  washing  up  glass  and  China, 
three  large  lofty  sitting  rooms,  and  two  smaller  ones,  used  as 
bedrooms,  and  three  large  good  bedrooms,  the  servants'  rooms 
were  quite  detached  from  the  house  across  the  yard.  But 
English  ladies  always  pride  themselves  upon  their  kitchens, 
and  mine,  I  found,  was  just  four  square  brick  walls  under  the 
dining  room,  often  flooded  in  the  heavy  rain,  with  no  furni- 
ture, no  pantries,  only  one  outside  place  that  vagrant  dogs 
could  enter  and  steal  my  dainties  from,  and  worst  of  all,  there 
was  no  attempt  at  any  kind  of  drainage.  The  water  was  all 
drawn  in  the  most  primitive  fashion  from  a  well,  and  we  had 
to  keep  one  man  whose  sole  business  it  was  to  clean  knives 
and  shoes,  draw  water,  bring  in  firewood  and  go  errands. 
Before  taking  possession  of  our  house  we  had  to  remain  a  few 


86 


weeks  at  one  of  the  hotels  of  the  city.  Towards  the  middle 
of  September,  we  settled  in  our  house.  On  the  third  day 
after  we  got  in,  our  lovely  little  girl,  Lucilla,  as  beautiful  and 
good  a  child  as  ever  blessed  this  earth,  died  after  three  days 
illness.  Of  her  I  cannot  dare  not  write.  Let  it  pass.  But 
I  am  compelled  to  speak  of  it,  as  the  circumstance  brought  out 
the  good   feeling   of  the  people  towards  us  so  wonderfully. 

General  M came  and  undertook  everything  for  us.     The 

kindness  and  sympathy  this  gentleman  showed  us  then  and 
during  our  whole  stay  in  that  part  no  pen  can  tell. 

Soon  after  we  arrived  at  Asheville  all  the  principal  people 
called  upon  us.  Our  very  first  visitor  was  the  Episcopal  Bis- 
hop of  North  Carolina.  Bishop  Atkinson,  a  splendid  looking 
elderly  man  of  the  very  highest  old  English  type  of  face  and 
figure,  and  a  most  benignant  countenance.  We  had  had  ex- 
cellent letters  of  introduction  to  many  gentlemen  in  the 
Southern  States,  but  had  none  whatever  to  Asheville,  and  yet 
we  were  received  with  the  utmost  confidence  and  kindness. 
We  have  all  heard  occasionally  in  American  writings  of  people 
of  the  old  Dominion  school,  and  I  for  one  never  clearly  under- 
stood what  it  meant  till  I  was  in  Asheville. 

It  seems  that  when  America  successfully  revolted  from  Eng- 
lish rule,  many,  especially  Yirginians  of  good  English  birth, 
retained  their  attachment  to  English  rule,  and  considered  the 
founding  a  republic  as  a  great  mistake,  and  they  were  called 
of  the  Old  Dominion  school ;  and  we  were  much  surprised  to 
find  that  something  of  this  feeling  exists  even  now  here,  and 
there  in  the  South  especially  since  their  Northern  conquest. 
We  found  in  that  remote  place  people  far  better  acquainted 
with  English  politics  and  the  movements  and  combinations  of 
English  political  parties  than  we  were  ourselves.  We  also  met 
with  the  most  staunch  old  fashioned,  loud  responding  Sir 
Roger  de  Coverly,  and  Dr.  Johnson  Stamp  of  Church  of 
England  men.  It  was  refreshing  to  hear  the  out  and  out  tory- 
J8m  of  our  dear  friend,  the  General,  and  how  he  mourned  over 
our  increase  of  the  franchises  in  England. 


87 

The  gentleman  had  been  originally  in  high  command  in  the 
United  States  army,  and  had  lost  his  right  arm  while  a  major 
in  command  in  Mexico  more  than  twenty  years  ago.  Being 
and  thinking  they  had  the  right  on  their  side,  he  had  em- 
braced the  cause  of  the  South,  and  with  its  loss  he  had  lost  his 
fortune,  and  late  in  life  he  had  become  a  lawyer,  and  what 
every  body  else  is  there  more  or  less,  a  farmer  also.  His  wife 
is  a  Northern  lady,  and  was  interesting  to  me  to  find  how  in- 
timately she  was  acquainted  with  European  courts  and  their 
intermarriages.  She  had  been  a  good  deal  in  Europe  herself, 
and  her  father  and  brothers  had  been  consuls  in  Paris  and  St. 
Petersburg.  The  extreme  cheapness  of  land  and  provisions 
had  induced  several  gentlemen,  whose  fortunes  had  been  di- 
minished by  the  war,  to  settle  in  Asheville.  There  were  also 
several  English  and  Irish  gentlemen  who  had  tried  Canada, 
but  had  been  droven,  by  the  severity  and  length  of  the 
Canadian  winters,  to  try  their  fortunes  in  the  South.  One  was 
mild  mining,  one  was  a  doctor,  and  another  tobacco  growing. 
If  properly  attended  to,  we  understand  tobacco  growing  is 
very  profitable  there,  as  the  climate  and  soil  are  very  favorable, 
but  very  often  the  whole  crop  is  destroyed  by  being  left  in  the 
hope  of  growing  a  little  longer,  until  an  early  frost,  which  will 
utterly  destroy  it.  We  could  have  bought  a  house  with  eight 
or  ten  large  rooms,  and  servants'  houses,  barns,  stables,  gar- 
dens, &c,  and  splendidly  situated,  for  a  thousand  pounds;  and 
farther  out  in  the  country  for  still  less;  and  they  will  all 
double  in  value  as  soon  as  ever  the  communication  is  complete. 
In  this  small  community  of  about  two  thousand  inhabitants, 
there  were  about  eight  regular  medical  men,  and  fourteen  or 
fifteen  lawyers,  and  many  churches  and  chapels  with  their 
ministers.  The  people  are  generally  extremely  English  look- 
ing, much  more  so  than  many  of  the  Northerners,  and  they 
have  the  kindest  feelings  towards  the  English  generally. 

Some^ef  the  ladies  are  very  pretty,  and  the  young  ladies 
dress  with  considerable  taste,  but  in  a  few  years  after  they 
marry  they  seem  to  adopt  a  very  plain  style  of  dress,  and  gen- 


88 


erally  to  place  themselves  a  good  deal  in  the  back  ground  of 
the  unmarried  people. 

The  great  number  of  lawyers  puzzled  us,  but  we  found  that 
Asheville  being  a  country  town,  there  was  a  very  great  deal  of 
land  business  to  be  transacted,  especially  in  collecting  the  taxes ; 
and  as  a  good  deal  of  land  was  bought  from  the  Government 
and  paid  for  by  instalments,  and  lawyers  secured  to  be  land 
surveyors  also,  there  was  work  enough  for  all.  Where  the 
population  is  so  very  thin  there  are  tracts  of  land  here  and 
there  unowned  and  unsurveyed,  and  some  of  these  lawyers 
buy  up  these  lands  for  less  than  a  dollar  an  acre. 

We  expected  to  find  the  manners  of  the  people  to  be  in  many 
respects  different  to  our  own,  and  this  was  the  case.  The 
young  gentlemen  of  the  place,  and  even  temporary  visitors, 
called  in  the  evenings  upon  our  daughters,  quite  ignoring  the 
father  and  mother.  Dancing  parties,  commencing  at  9  o'clock, 
were  very  usual.  They  were  kept  up  till  two  in  the  morning, 
and  in  many  cases  without  any  refreshment  whatever  being 
provided.  I  inquired  the  reason  of  this,  and  was  told  that 
during  the  war  the  people  were  so  poor  they  could  not  afford 
to  give  parties  with  any  refreshment,  but  the  young  people, 
being  very  sociable,  had  become  tired  of  staying  at  home  al- 
ways, and  had  therefore  agreed  to  have  the  dances  without  the 
supper,  and  this  had  continued  in  some  households  when  the 
necessity  had  ceased.  On  moonlight  nights  serenading  was 
very  frequent  and  often  very  effectively  and  well  managed,  the 
broad  piazzas  forming  an  excellent  platform  for  the  performers ; 
the  gentlemen  who  gave  the  serenade  being  accompanied  by 
the  black  banjo  players,  and  we  were  always  supposed  not  to 
know  who  the  serenader  was,  but  we  found  they  were  quite  dis- 
appointed if  we  did  not  find  out. 

I  have  said  that  food  was  very  cheap.  To  give  an  idea  of 
prices  in  English  money,  we  generally,  during  the  summer  and 
early  winter,  bought  good  chickens  alive  for  7£d.  each ;  we  kept 
them  two  or  three  weeks  to  fatten  on  Indian  corn,  and  they 
were  very  good  for  the  table.     Young  turkeys  were  2s.  each, 


large  ones  3s.  Beef  was  from  2-fd.  to  3d.  or  4d.  a  pound,  ac- 
cording to  the  supply ;  the  beef  is  generally  very  tough  and 
lean,  although  if  ordinary  care  was  taken  the  animals  might  be 
as  well  fed  as  in  England.  Butter  8d.  to  Is.  a  pound,  and  eggs 
often  twenty-six  for  a  shilling.  Flour  was  also  very  cheap  and 
good,  and  if  you  understood  their  mode  of  home-made  bread, 
and  liked  it  hot  every  meal,  yon  could  do  very  well ;  but  to 
buy  bread  was  very  dear.  I  think  it  was  only  English  resi- 
dents who  did  so  generally.  Potatoes  were  cheap  and 
very  inferior.  Tomatoes,  peaches  and  apples,  and  wild  straw- 
berries, and  especially  tomatoes  and  grapes,  were  excellent. 
There  was  no  eatable  fish  except  oysters,  which,  when  the 
roads  were  good,  were  brought  from  Baltimore  in  excellent 
condition.  Yenison  and  mutton  were  occasionally  to  be  bought 
but  not  often.  There  was  no  regular  supply  of  game,  but^ 
when  it  was  brought  it  was  absurdly  cheap  and  very  good. 
The  small  hares,  about  the  size  of  a  rabbit,  and  the  partridges, 
as  large  as  good  sized  pigeons,  were  sold  for  four  pence  each. 
Splendid,  large  good-flavored  apples  we  bought  in  the  autumn 
for  forty  cents — about  one-and-nine-pence — a  bushel.  Groce- 
ries were  dearer  than  in  England,  unless  you  bought  them  in 
New  York,  wholesale.  Notwithstanding  this  extreme  cheap- 
ness, we  found  house  keeping  a  great  trouble,  as  the  supplies 
were  so  extremely  irregular.  The  poorer  people  have  scarcely 
any  money,  and  the  country  farmers  come  into  the  town  with 
their  goods  for  barter  with  the  shop  or  storekeepers,  as  they 
are  called,  though  I  believe  they  prefer  the  term  merchant  to 
any  other,  and,  in  some  sense,  they  are  correct,  as  a  good  deal 
of  the  produce  they  receive,  such  as  hides  and  wool,  they  send 
on  to  New  York.  All  the  shops  are  general  shops.  I  have 
gone  to  buy  a  bit  of  ribbon,  and  have  seen  horrible  raw-hides, 
barrels  of  nails,  meat,  groceries,  and  every  imaginable  thing 
for  sale,  including,  perhaps,  masses  of  mica,  which  is  found  in 
the  neighborhood  in  great  quantities,  at  least  it  exists  there 
largely,  and  the  roads  sparkle  with  it  everywhere.  It  is  ob- 
tained, to  Borne  extent,  but  nothing  to  what  it  might  be. 


90 

Asheville  is  upon  the  same  parallel  of  latitude  as  Egypt. 
We  had  been   told  that  the  winter  consisted  of  sharp,  short 
spells  of  severe  dry  frost,  with   some  heavy  rains  in  the  au- 
tumn and  spring ;    but  even  here  our  ill  luck  followed  us  in 
the  matter  of  weather ;  for  the  people  told  us  they  had  never 
had  such  frequent  and  severe  cold,  and  such  a  wet,  cold  spring 
within  the  memory  of   "the  oldest  inhabitant."     Our  house 
was,  as  1  said,  well  built  of  wood,  lined  and  plastered,  papered 
or  whitewashed,  which  latter  is  by  far  the  most  usual  plan  in 
the  South,  and  is  infinitely  preferable  to  most  of  the  fearful 
papers  that  are,  I  should  think,  the  rejected  of  all  other  places. 
One  pattern  that  I  saw  had  a  border  consisting  of  a  vast  num- 
ber of  catterpillars,  the  paper  itself  was  like  the  dreadful  look- 
ing things  we  see  hanging  up   in  low  butchers'  shops — the 
hideous,  reddish,  yellowy  masses  of  liver — and  no  one  could 
look  at  this  paper  without  seeing  the  of  course  unintended  re- 
semblance.    Even  I  was  once   an   accomplice  in  selecting  a 
dining-room  paper  when  flock  papers  were  in  fashion — and 
very  good  and   handsome  the  paper  was — with  dark  green 
ground  and  bright  oak  pattern   of  fruits  and  flowers.     What 
was  my  dismay  when  it  was  hung  to  see  an  infinite  series  of 
copper  teakettles — spout,  handle,  lid,  and  all  complete  dang- 
ling all  over  the  walls ;  but  this  was  not  in  Asheville,  and  so 
has  no  business  here.     I  was  speaking  of  the  cold,  being  so 
far  South.     Asheville  was  always  moderately  warm — the  sun 
at  all  times  had  great  power — but  during  the  winter,  if  ever 
the  wind  veered  to  the  North  it  was  intensely  cold,  and  this 
cold  was  often  extremely  sudden.     I  remember,  especially  one 
day  in  January,  the  day  was  so  bright  and  warm  that  we  sat 
on  the  piazza  without  our  bonnets  or  shawls,  let  out  the  fires 
in  the  rooms,  and  had  all  the  windows  open  ;  we  noticed  the 
thermometer  stood  at  eighty  in  the  room  ;  we  fell  it  colder  in 
the  evening  and  had  fires  in  the  bed-room.     In   the  night  I 
woke  to  find   it   intensely   cold,  all  the  water  in  the  rooms 
frozen,  and  even  a  pail  of  water  by  the  fireside  frozen  to  one 


91 


solid  mass  of  ice.     This  frost  lasted  about  a  week,  and  was  suc- 
ceeded again  by  warm  weather  and  rain. 

The  thermometer  fell  55  degrees  in  twelve  hours.  When 
it  rains  it  rains  in  a  perfect  deluge,  and  will  perhaps  continue 
for  three  days  ;  and  the  mountains  and  hills  there  being  formed 
of  very  soft,  light  soil,  they  are  all  deeply  furrowed  with  what 
amount  at  times  to  gorges  and  ravines,  and  it  is  this  that  in  a 
great  measure  makes  the  roads  so  bad,  and  the  people  are  at 
present  too  few  and  poor  to  grapple  with  the  difficulties  of 
nature,  and  cheapness  is  all  they  look  at,  so  as  to  make  a  road 
barely  passable.  A  few  private  gentlemen  make  the  roads 
about  their  own  houses  good,  but  this  is  the  exception.  As  an 
instance  of  their  road-making,  several  times  while  we  were 
there,  during  the  winter  the  mails  were  detained  a  day  owing 
to  falls  of  earth,  in  short,  cutting  near  Old  Fort,  (the  rail  ter- 
minus.) The  banks  had  been  purposely  left  too  steep,  as  the 
road-makers  said  "  the  rains  would  wash  them  to  the  proper 
angle  gradually,  and  it  would  be  somebody  else's  lookout  to 
clear  the  line,  should  the  earth  fall,  and  save  themselves  much 
trouble  in  making  the  proper  gradient.  "We  had  a  good  deal 
of  trouble  with  servants  at  first ;  we  kept  one  man  and  two 
women — the  black  women  I  could  not  tolerate.  I  suppose  I 
did  not  know  how  to  manage  them.  I  succeeded  at  last  in 
getting  a  "  poor  white  " — a  widow — and  after  a  little  training 
she  made  a  very  good  servant,  quiet  and  docile,  and  obliging, 
a  good  deal  better  than  the  English  one  I  had  taken  out  with 
us.  The  air  was  so  excessively  dry  during  the  frosts  that  on 
brushing  our  hair  it  detonated  with  a  sharp  noise,  and  stood 
out  from  the  head,  and  wonld  follow  the  movements  of  the 
comb,  like  the  needle  following  the  magnet.  But  the  electrical 
condition  often  produced  severe  headache.  The  town  had  an 
ill-built  appearance,  but  all  the  shopkeepers  had  their  pretty 
houses  upon  their  own  land  just  around,  and  almost  everybody 
kept  horses  and  mules.  People  possessing  their  own  land  and 
having  only  20,001  a  year,  could  live  in  comfort  and  drive 
about  ;  and  as  servants,  such  as  they  are,  are  plentiful,  money 


92 


would  go  just  as  far  again  there  as  in  England.  We  got  very 
good  native  wine  from  Raleigh  in  the  cast  at  a  dollar  a  gallon; 
it  was  deep  red,  and  ranch  sweeter  than  claret.  I  think  it  was 
called  "  Catawba."  As  for  milk,  we  bought  a  good  cow  and 
her  calf  for  3£. 

As  an  example  of  the  kindness  of  the  people,  I  will  mention 
one  instance.  The  place  was  a  great  resort  for  consumptive 
people  and  those  suffering  from  lung  disease — indeed,  it  was 
this  that  led  us  there.  There  are  no  workhouses,  but  if  any 
one  is  ill  and  unable  to  provide  for  himself,  the  State  provides 
him  lodgings  and  everything  that  is  necessary.  A  poor  young 
man  wae  ill  and  far  gone  in  consumption  in  a  distant  part  of 
the  country,  and  as  human  life  is  precious  there,  at  his  own 
wish  he  was  brought  to  Asheville,  but  it  was  too  late.  He  was 
taken  to  one  of  the  inns  almost  dying.  The  young  men  of  the 
town,  gentlemen  in  every  respect,  went  immediately  to  6ee 
him,  and  two  of  them  sat  up  with  this  poor  young  man  every 
night  for  a  fortnight,  and  if  he  had  been  ever  so  rich  he  could 
not  have  received  more  considerate  attention  ;  and  everybody 
inquired  about  him,  and  sent  little  dainties  to  him,  with  an 
affectionate  interest  I  have  never  seen  exhibited  in  England 
about  a  pauper  patient.  I  called  at  a  gentleman's  house  one 
day  ;  the  daughter  came  in  from  visiting  a  very  poor  woman, 
as  dainty  and  relined  a  young  lady  as  one  would  meet  with 
anywhere  in  Leamington,  and  though  she  had  a  bad  cold  her- 
self at  the  time,  and  had  been  much  disturbed  the  previous 
night  with  her  own  invalid  sister,  6he  was  going  to  sit  up  and 
attend  as  a  nurse  upon  a  poor  woman  who  had  just  been  con- 
fined, and  nurse  her  sick  baby,  and  all  this  was  done  so  natu- 
rally as  if  it  was  just  an  ordinary  every-day  duty,  calling  for 
no  remark  whatever.  I  felt  we  English  ladies  had  yet  some- 
thing to  learn  from  these  ex-slaveholders,  that  some  of  us  had 
held  in  such  horror.  We  talked  a  good  deal  with  the  people 
about  slavery.  They  all  thought  it  a  bad  system,  but  they  had 
found  it  and  had  grown  up  with  it,  and  it  had  been  left  them 
by  the  English,  and  therefore  they  had  not  been  entirely  re- 


sponsible  for  it ;  besides,  we  did  not  go  from  England  to 
America  to  find  fault  with  the  people  or  their  institutions.  If 
they  had  sinned  they  have  suffered,  and  they  are  bravely  trying 
to  repair  their  ruined  fortunes.  It  has  been  hard  enough  for 
them  to  try  to  adjust  their  relationship  with  the  negroes,  and 
they  would  have  done  this  amicably  on  both  sides  if  it  had  not 
been  for  the  interference  of  Northerners,  (carpet-baggers,  I 
believe  they  caB  them)  trying  to  make  the  colored  people  dis- 
satisfied. Northerners  are  now  kindly  received  in  the  South, 
and  there  were  many  in  Asheville,  but  so  long  as  General 
Grant  is  President,  they  will  feel  no  interest  in  politics,  and 
feel  themselves,  in  a  measure,  under  military  despotism. 

Good  top  coats  in  America  cost  nearly  twenty  pounds,  and 
as  the  men  cannot  all  of  them  afford  this,  in  the  winter  they 
almost  all  wore  large,  coarse,  thick,  dark  shawls — worn  length- 
ways, not  like  women  wear  them  ;  the  effect  was  very  peculiar. 
We  observed  that  generally  the  ladies  dressed  much  better 
than  the  men.  The  women  all  ride  on  horseback,  but  the 
riding  on  such  bad  roads  is  sometimes  very  injurious  to  the 
spine.  One  lady  told  me  that  she  had  once  been  on  a  journey 
of  fifteen  hundred  miles  into  Texas,  with  her  father  on  horse- 
back thirty  years  ago — a  long  journey  for  a  slight  young  lady 
of  eighteen. 

We  left  that  beautiful  region  in  May  of  last  year.  Much  as 
we  liked  the  people  and  admired  the  glorious  mountains,  the 
attractions  to  England  were  stronger.  We  were  too  far  from 
the  large  towns,  and  especially  from  the  railway,  and  so  we 
have  given  up  our  thousand  acres  for  a  neat,  prim  little  villa  in 
an  English  town,  with  a  large  garden  of  a  quarter  of  an  acre 
or  so,  and  sometimes  rather  despising  ourselves  for  our  want 
of  pluck.  We  have  at  any  rate  greatly  enriched  our  memories 
and  imagination,  and  seen  a  good  deal  of  the  better  side  of 
human  nature,  and  our  dear  invalid  to  a  very  large  extent  re- 
covered the  use  of  his  damaged  lung,  and  will,  I  hope,  now 
live  to  be  eighty.  Upon  the  whole  we  were  most  of  all  sur. 
prised  to  find  five  thousand  miles  away,  a  people  brought  up 


u 


under  different  influences  and  yet  so  very  much  like  ourselves 
in  habits  and  dress,  language  and  appearance.  Most  of  the 
women  suffer  from  dyspepsia,  and  are  very  thin.  This  is  in 
consequence  of  only  taking  two  meals  a  da}r,  save-trouble  plan 
introduced  since  the  war.  The  newspapers  were  intensely 
personal ;  flirtations  between  young  people  at  a  pic-nic  would 
be  mentioned  almost  by  name,  and  advertisement  such  as  this, 
"  Mr.  Robinson  has  a  large  number  of  excellent  sewing  ma- 
chines to  sell  at  his  photographic  premises,  and  as  this  amiable 
young  gentleman  is  still  delving  in  the  mines  of  single  bless- 
edness, we  advise  all  the  young  ladies  to  take  this  opportunity 
of  improving  their  acquaintance  with  this  excellent  young 
manN."  The  people  were  always  more  amused  than  annoyed  at 
these  things. 

I  am  sir, 

Your  obedient  servant, 

S.  H. 
Leamington. 


EDITORIAL  COMMENTS  OF  THE  LONDON  DAILY 
NEWS  OF  8TH  AUGUST,  1874,  ON  THE  LETTEKS 
WRITTEN  BY  THE  ENGLISH  LADY.' 


A  lady,  whose  letter  we  publish  this  morning,  presents  us 
with  a  lively  picture  of  society  in  a  part  of  North  America , 
which  is  less  visited  by  our  countrymen  than  formerly,  but  in 
which  it  is  impossible  for  us  not  to  feel  an  interest.  The 
Carolinas,  like  all  the  Southern  States  that  threw  in  their  for- 
tunes with  the  Confederacy,  are  in  a  very  depressed  condition. 
Good  harvests  and  industry  are  raising  them,  but  they  have  a 
new  system  of  labor  to  bring  into  operation,  and  their  recovery 
must  be  gradual.  By  and  bye  they  will  attract  the  merchant 
and  the  traveller  as  formerly,  and  then  we  shall  hear  more  of 
them. 

Our  correspondent  went  from  this  country  to  North  Carolina 
under  circumstances  that  appeal  to  our  domestic  sympathies — 
to  find  a  place  where  her  husband  and  children  might  recover 
lost  health.  We  doubt  whether  there  is  any  other  country  of 
the  world  where  home  attachments  are  so  strong  as  they  are  in 
England,  where  a  voyage  across  the  Atlantic,  with  the  pros- 
pect of  a  journey  of  800  miles  at  the  end  of  it,  would  be  un- 
dertaken by  a  whole  family  in  such  circumstances. 

After  all  the  warm  places  in  the  south  of  England  had  been 
tried  in  vain,  the  resolution  was  taken  to  proceed  to  Asheville, 
a  small  and  little  known  town,  2,000  feet  above  the  sea  level, 
among  the  Blue  Ridge  mountains  of  North  Carolina.  Here, 
amidst  magnificent  ssenery,  an  atmosphere  of  extraordinary 
purity  and  brightness  was  found,  which  gives  a  peculiar  sharp- 
ness to  all  objects,  and  of  which  our  correspondent  cannot  even 
speak  without  enthusiasm.  In  the  climate  of  Asheville  the 
benefit  desired  was  realized,  and  the  life  which  was  in  grave 
peril  is  likely  to  be  prolonged  for  many  years. 


1 

> 


96 


Life  in  Asheville,  as  represented  in  the  letter  of  our  corres- 
pondent, has  features  which  may  recommend  it  to  certain 
classes  of  onr  people.  In  these  days  of  dear  food,  which  in- 
dignation meetings  have  not  made  any  cheaper,  it  is  both 
pleasing  and  tantalising  to  read  of  beef  from  2£d.  to  3d.  per 
pound  ;  young  turkeys  at  2s.,  and  large  ones  at  3s.;  bares  and 
partridges,  4d.;  and  chickens  7£d.  each.  With  flour,  potatoes, 
grapes,  peaches  and  strawberries,  all  exceedingly  cheap,  and 
good  wine  a  dollar  a  gallon,  it  may  well  be  understood  that, 
notwithstanding  the  dearness  of  house  rent,  £200  a  year  in 
North  Carolina  will  go  as  far  as  £400  in  England.  Life,  how- 
ever, is  conducted  in  a  primitive  fashion  in  these  parts.  If 
supplies  are  cheap,  they  are  also  irregular,  and  you  must  often 
take,  not  what  you  want,  but  what  the  producer  happens  to 
have  to  part  with.  Transactions  are  effected  very  much  by 
barter,  and  if  the  country  dealer  brings  in  raw-hides,  when  you 
are  wishing  for  a  joint  of  mutton,  so  much  the  worse  for  your 
dinner.  Then,  again,  the  roads  are  very  bad  in  the  interior  of 
North  Carolina,  and  many  of  us  would,  perhaps,  think  it 
boring,  at  least,  to  be  so  far  away  from  the  great  world,  with 
its  life  and  activity.  But  what  our  correspondent  most  cares 
to  say,  relates  rather  to  the  people  than  to  the  condition  in 
which  they  live;  their  kindness  of  heart,  whether  to  one 
another  or  to  strangers,  and  particularly  their  great  resemblance 
to  our  own  people.  "  Upon  the  whole,  we  were  most  of  all 
surprised  to  find,  five  thousand  miles  away,  a  people  brought 
up  under  different  influences,  and  yet  so  very  much  like  our- 
selves in  habits  and  dress,  language  and  appearance." 

The  people,  we  are  told,  are  very  English  looking,  much 
more  so  than  the  northerners,  and  they  have  the  kindest  feel- 
ings towards  the  English  generally.  They  carry  this  predilec- 
tion for  us  so  far  as  to  adopt  many  of  our  ways  of  thinking  and 
acting,  and  even  to  preserve  some  habits  which  we,  whether 
for  good  or  evil,  have  forgotten.  Our  correspondent  had  for  her 
first  visitor  the  Bishop  of  the  diocese,  "  a  splendid  looking 
elderly  man,  of  the  highest  old  English  type  of  face  and  figure, 


97 


and  a  most  benignant  countenance."  On  Sundays  they  met 
with  the  most  staunch  old-fashioned,  loud  responding  Sir  Roger 
de  Caverly  and  Dr.  Johnson,  stamp  of  church  of  England  men." 
Ritualism  would  have  little  chance  in  such  society  as  this,  and 
judging  from  analogy,  will  have  to  wait  fifty  years  before  it 
get  a  footing  in  North  Carolina.  Then,  too,  there  are  old- 
fashioned  tories  at  Asheville,  not  the  modern  degenerate  rep- 
resentative of  the  school,  which  is  content  to  call  itself  con- 
servative, but  men  of  the  type  of  the  late  Sir  Robert  Inglis. 
There  was  a  general  who  had  lost  his  arm  in  Mexico,  who 
"mourned  over"  the  recent  extension  of  the  franchise  in  fcng- 
land,  and  to  whom  Mr.  Disreali  might  in  kindness  send  a  set 
of  his  collected  works.  There  are  even  Americans  at  the 
South  who,  since  the  war,  have  taken  up  a  notion  which  was 
held  by  a  good  many  decent  people  seventy  years  ago,  that  the 
founding  of  the  republic  was  a  mistake,  and  that  the  people 
would  have  done  better  under  English  rule.  Canada  is  too 
cold  for  them  to  try  the  new  Dominion  instead  of  the  old,  and 
so  they  pursue  their  harmless  fancies  and  keep  one  another  in 
countenance.  The  letter  of  our  correspondent  exhibits  North 
Carolina  in  a  state  of  transition.  The  people  have  too  much 
good  sense  not  to  right  themselves  ultimately. 

The  old  people  described  in  this  letter  will  not  guide  the 
fortunes  of  the  State,  and  their  sentimental  talk  will  not  hin- 
der the  progress  of  events  one  hour.  As  soon  as  the  Southern 
communities  admit  that  they  have  to  adjust  themselves  to  their 
new  circumstances,  they  will  begin  to  feel  the  return  of  pros- 
perity, and  this  they  are  doing.  A  very  matter  of  fact  kind  of 
lady  from  Georgia,  whom  our  correspondent  encountered,  told 
her  that  for  a  year  or  two  ?fter  the  emancipation  of  the  slaves, 
she  and  her  husband  believed  themselves  ruined,  but  that  after 
they  had  got  back  to  work  they  found  it  very  much  cheaper  to 
be  able  to  hire  such  good  strong  laborers  as  they  now  had 
than  to  have  to  support  a  crowd  of  slaves,  including  children 
and  aged  and  sick  and  disabled  men  and  women. 

The  fair  Georgian  insisted  that  she  and  her  husband  had  been 
7 


9S 


deprived  of  their  human  "  property "  most  unjustly,  yet  ad- 
mitted that  they  were  doing  much  better  under  the  new  and 
free  system  than  under  the  old.  Now,  that  slavery  is  gone, 
even  at  the  South,  nobody  has  a  good  word  for  it.  Our  corres- 
pondent talked  a  good  deal  about  it  with  the  people.  "  They  all 
thought  it  a  bad  system,  but  they  had  found  it  and  grown  up  with 
it,  and  it  had  been  lett  them  by  the  English,  and  therefore  they 
had  not  been  entirely  responsible  for  it."  This  is  the  best  way  of 
putting  the  case,  and  if  everybody  had  spoken  like  this  between 
1S50~'60,  there  would  have  been  no  war  of  secession.  Our 
correspondent  was  told  that  they  find  it  difficult  to  adjust  their 
relations  with  the  emancipated  negroes,  but  this  was  to  be  ex- 
pected, and  the  difficulty  will  continue  until  both  classes  learn 
that  each  is  indispensable  to  the  other.  Our  correspondent  refers 
again  and  again  to  the  kindness  of  the  people  to  one  another, 
but  this  we  believe  is  the  common  testimony  of  those  who  have 
remarked  the  manners  ot  English-speaking  people  in  colonies 
and  remote  countries.  A  country  clergyman  lately  published, 
for  the  benefit  of  agricultural  laborers,  a  touching  dissuasive 
from  emigration  to  Canada,  expressly  on  the  ground  that  there 
are  no  union  workhouses  in  that  colony.  This  good  man  could 
not  imagine  a  perfect  state  of  society  without  a  workhouse. 
There  are  no  unions  in  North  Carolina,  but  there  is  humanity. 
"  A  poor  young  man,"  writes  our  correspondent,  "  was  ill  and 
far  gone  in  consumption,  in  a  distant  part  of  the  country,  and 
at  his  own  wish  he  was  brought  to  Asheville,  but  it  was  too 
late.  He  was  taken  to  one  of  the  inns,  almost  dying.  The 
young  men  of  the  town — gentlemen  in  every  respect — went 
immediately  to  see  him,  and  two  of  them  sat  up  with  this  poor 
young  man  every  night  for  a  fortnight,  and  if  he  had  been  ever 
so  rich  he  could  not  have  received  more  considerate  attention  ; 
and  everybody  inquired  about  him,  and  sent  little  dainties  to 
him  with  an  affectionate  interest  I  have  never  seen  exhibited 
in  England  about  a  pauper  patient." 

For  the  idle  and  improvident  there  may  not  be  the  encour- 
agement which  exists  :"  ->ur  own  country,  but  the  self-respect- 


99 


ing  and  deserving  do  not.  starve.  Most  of  us,  we  believe,  will 
share  the  kindly  feelings  and  good  wishes  with  which  our  cor- 
respondent took  leave  of  her  friends  in  North  Carolina.  Her 
choice  of  that  State  as  a  temporary  residence,  she  informs  us, 
was?  determined  by  some  articles  which  were  published  in  the 
Daily  News  five  or  six  years  ago.  We  cannot  regret  their 
appearance  in  view  of  the  result.  Our  correspondent,  how- 
ever, has  returned.  "Much  as  we  liked  the  people  and  ad- 
mired the  glorious  mountains,  the  attractions  of  England  were 
stronger.  We  were  too  far  from  the  large  towns,  and  espec- 
ially from  the  railway,  and  so  we  have  given  up  our  thousand 
acres  for  a  neat,  prim  little  villa  in  an  English  town,  with  a 
large  garden  of  a  quarter  ot  an  acre  or  so,  and  sometimes 
rather  despising  ourselves  for  our  want  of  pluck."  This  re 
suit  might  have  been  predicted.  Going  abroad  for  health  is  a 
very  different  thing  from  emigration,  and  our  correspondent 
having  fully  accomplished  the  object  of  her  journey  of  ten 
thousand  miles,  need  not  accuse  herself  of  want  of  courage. 


THE  DIRECTORS 

OF 

THE  BOARD  OF  IMMIGRATION,  STATISTICS  AND 
AGRICULTURE 

OF    TFE 

STATE  OF  NORTH  CAROLINA. 


Dr.  WM.  H.  HOWERTON,  Sec.  of  State,  President. 

GEORGE  LITTLE,  Com.  of  Immigration,  Sect'y. 

WM.  C.  KERR,  State  Geologist. 

WM.  JOHNSTON,  Mecklenburg  County. 

R.  R.  BRIDGES,  Edgecombe 
Dr.  WM.  J.  HAWKINS,  Warren 

JOHN  D.  WHITFORD,  Craven      " 

E.  M.  HOLT,  Alamance  " 

E.  R.  LILES,  Anson 

S.  H.  GRAY,  Craven 

HENRY  NUTT,  New  Hanover 

JOHN  B.  GRETTER,  Guilford 

D.  G.  WORTH,  New  Hanover 

E.  J.  ASTON,  Buncombe  " 


*j 


